Sweden unbeaten – but with a knife to the throat

Norway's turnaround against Spain shook life into the half-slumbering World Championship party in Oslo. And made Sweden's group a real hornet's nest.

With two rounds left of the intermediate round, five teams – Portugal, Sweden, Brazil, Spain, and Norway – are still in the fight.

Prio one: To take one of the two quarterfinal spots from the group.

Prio two: To finish first and thereby avoid the big gold favorite Denmark already in the quarterfinals.

"Try to seize the opportunity"

Now we stand here today and if we win against Brazil and Norway, we'll probably go on, if I haven't counted wrong. Then we'll gladly take and try to seize the opportunity. When we saw the draw beforehand, we knew it would be a hornet's nest, says national team captain Michael Apelgren at Thursday's press conference with the national team.

But you'd rather win the group?

Now it's just about going on, first and foremost. But Denmark looks good… so I understand the question.

Apelgren is absolutely right that two wins guarantee Sweden will go on. But if you start counting all the possible scenarios, all the "ifs" and "buts", it's easy to get a bit dizzy.

One thing is clear, to begin with, that Friday has the potential to be a decisive day for Sweden.

The afternoon's Iberian derby between Portugal and Spain can have great significance for Sweden's continued fate in the World Championship tournament.

Portugal will take a firm grip on first place with a potential win.

Spanish victory to prefer

If, on the other hand, Spain wins, a better situation opens up for Sweden, which would then take over first place in the group with a win in the subsequent match against Brazil. Moreover, a Spanish win would likely mean that Norway is eliminated before Sunday evening's meeting with Sweden.

Team captain Andreas Palicka is not the type to sit and ponder possible future scenarios in the group. The focus is the old familiar – to win the next match.

Beating Brazil is the big and actually only goal we have right now, says the 38-year-old goalkeeper who had a tough evening in the 37–37 match against Portugal.

Palicka tries to look positively at the situation, despite what has felt like unnecessary point losses in the drawn matches against Spain and Portugal.