The EHF Euro Cup is a training tournament for the four teams that avoid qualifying for next year's European Championship in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (in addition to the host nations, also the reigning champion France).
For Sweden's part, Wednesday evening's meeting with Norway felt a bit more important than usual. After a World Championship with a failure stamp – Sweden finished in 14th place – Blågult needed a small confidence boost.
And they got it.
We got a not-so-great start, but I think we worked ourselves into the match, said Emil Mellegård to SVT during the break.
In that situation, Sweden had turned an early deficit into a 20–17 lead after five goals from Mellegård, who got the chance as left back when both Hampus Wanne and Lucas Pellas were absent.
Sweden, where midfielder and star Felix Claar was back after illness and played his first national team match since the Olympic Games, continued strongly after the break. Not least, Fabian Norsten from Stockholm, who normally plays in Ålborg, shone in the Swedish goal.
He took almost all the shots, which means extremely much and was fantastically nice for us, says national team coach Michael Apelgren to SVT.
In the end, he brought forward two young debutants in left back Nikola Roganovic (born 2006) and left back Felix Montebovi (born 2005).
It only took a couple of minutes before both Roganovic and Montebovi had scored.
That bodes well for the future, says Apelgren with a smile.
11,048 spectators in the newly renovated "Globen" could finally celebrate a convincing 38–29 victory. Norway and Sweden meet again on Saturday, then in Trondheim.
Played matches:
France–Sweden 37–31
Sweden–Denmark 29–33
Sweden–Norway 38–29
Remaining matches:
Norway–Sweden (Trondheim, Saturday)
Sweden–France (Gothenburg, May 7)
Denmark–Sweden (venue unclear, May 11)
