Sweden's chances of advancing were small already after Monday's loss in the thriller against Montenegro.
And they became even smaller when Finland later in the evening suffered a narrow loss to Lithuania in front of the blue and white home crowd.
For the Swedish men's national team, the only hope now is that Great Britain will pull off an upset and defeat Montenegro in Wednesday's early match, which starts at 12:30. If the British win, Great Britain, Montenegro, and Sweden will be tied on the same number of points – and as long as the British do not win by more than 32 points, Sweden will advance as group four via the trio's mutual matches.
If Sweden wins against Lithuania, they will advance even if Great Britain, against all odds, wins by more than 32 points.
But not much suggests that Great Britain will win at all. The team has four consecutive losses and the weekend's defeat against Sweden (59–78) was followed up by a huge loss to Germany (57–120) on Monday.
Sweden concludes its group play against Lithuania at 15:30 and already at the tip-off in Tampere, the hope of advancing to the round of 16 may be over.
The blue and yellow team is making its first European Championship in 12 years and has taken its only win against Great Britain. Against both Finland and Montenegro, Sweden has had the lead in the final period, but still lost narrowly. The only clear loss came in the meeting with Germany.
The table before the final round:
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Germany, 4 wins/0 losses.
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Lithuania, 3/1.
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Finland, 3/1.
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Montenegro, 1/3.
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Sweden, 1/3.
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Great Britain, 0/4.
Final round: Great Britain-Montenegro, Sweden-Lithuania, Finland-Germany.
The top four teams will advance to the round of 16. If two or more teams are tied on the same number of points, the results of the mutual matches will be the first tiebreaker.
Previous mutual results in the bottom trio: Sweden-Great Britain 78–59, Sweden-Montenegro 81–87.
