Andreas Palicka, 38, saved Japan's first three shots and stood in the way for most of the rest of the match. He was named the match's best player. Jim Gottfridsson, 32, started by breaking Sweden's World Championship zero after just over a minute. Then he showed that he still holds absolute world-class as a midfielder. "Gotte" was brilliant, scored another goal in the match and, what impresses even more, set up eleven more.
I'm very pleased, said Gottfridsson to Viaplay already after the first half.
"Felt hungry"
Many of Gottfridsson's assists ended up in the hands of another 32-year-old. Albin Lagergren did as he pleased with the Japanese defense and scored seven of Sweden's goals. Only Sebastian Karlsson, with eight full hits, was better for the evening.
There was a class difference between the teams and Sweden only experienced a critical period, at the end of the first half. Then Japan scored four goals in a row and were briefly only one goal behind.
A Swedish surge before the break gave Sweden a four-goal lead, and after the break, Sweden went on to knock out.
We had a phase in the first half where we messed up quite a bit, where Japan is quite good, they punish us hard. But in the second half, we're on from the first second and kill the match in ten minutes, says Andreas Palicka to Viaplay.
Sweden made 7–1 in the first seven minutes of the second half. When the final whistle blew, Sweden had won by 18 goals, 39–21.
I'm very happy about our performance. We felt hungry. It was nice that it became a nice trip, says national team coach Michael Apelgren to Viaplay.
Successful World Championship debut
And it wasn't just the "old guys" who impressed. A bit into the second half, when the match was decided, Palicka got to rest. Substitute Fabian Norsten could hardly have done better in his World Championship debut; the 24-year-old saved seven out of ten shots.
It's about us daring to stand with these younger players. We won't be able to stand with these "30 plus" guys in a lot of years to come. It will be interesting to see where this takes us, says Apelgren.
In the other match in the group, Spain won big against Chile, 31–22.
For Sweden, Chile awaits next on Saturday before the group stage concludes against Spain on Monday.
