Sweden’s excellent start of the second half against Spain was enough to see the Scandinavian team through to their maiden win in the men’s handball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, 29:26.

PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC GAMES – PRELIMINARY ROUND
GROUP A
Sweden vs Spain 29:26 (11:11)

Sweden failed to find their rhythm in their opener in the men’s handball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, conceding a 27:30 loss against Germany. That meant that missteps were hardly allowed for the bronze medalists of the EHF EURO 2024, especially in a difficult battle against Spain, which had previously won against Sweden in the bronze medal match at the 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship.

Spain were coming after a hardly convincing win against Slovenia themselves, but Jordi Ribera’s side are always a team to be reckoned with, provided they display the kind of performance needed at this level, one they failed to reach throughout a rocky 2024, when they looked like they made a step back.

Indeed, Sweden came out motivated, albeit with a surprise change between the posts, where Tobias Thulin replaced Andreas Palicka, who had a fantastic outing against Germany. Sure enough, Thulin made the most out of his opportunity, being the key for Sweden’s fantastic defence, as he saved 13 shots for a 43% saving efficiency in the first 45 minutes.

But it was far from a match where Sweden were cruising to a win, despite taking an early lead, with the team quarterbacked by centre back Jim Gottfridsson, who had quite a quiet outing in the match against Germany. Once again, Gottfridsson was not the goal scorer, but the centre back delivered perfect passes to his teammates, which managed to score.

With Thulin shining and becoming instrumental in Sweden’s win, the attack was well-balanced, with at least 10 players scoring at least one goal, with the Scandinavian side cruising to a 11:7 lead, with seven minutes to go in the first half. But then Spain remembered why they are one of the most consistent teams in men’s handball for the last decade.

A 4:0 run to end the first half, with the last two goals scored by Barcelona’s right wing Aleix Gomez tied the score at the break, 11:11, only for Sweden to wake up from their lethargy and open up the second half with their own 5:1 run, to take back the lead, 16:12, prompting Jordi Ribera to take a team time-out for Spain.

Plagued by an uncharacteristic 54% shooting efficiency, Spain tried to muster a comeback, but did not manage to move the needle as much they would have needed to, as their backs, especially Agustin Casado and Alex Dujshebaev were totally limited by Sweden’s fantastic display, one which Spain had no answer to.

By the 50th minute, Sweden had built their largest lead of the match, 22:17, as Spain found a constant wall in their opponents’ defence, despite line player Oscar Bergendahl being rested by coach Glenn Solberg, due to his two suspensions. But that did not have an impact, as Sweden totally dominated in the second half, taking a 29:26 win, with Spain only limiting the damage in the dying minutes, when they cut Sweden's lead from seven to three goals.

With the three matches in Group A already played on Monday, Germany are the only team to have four points, followed by Sweden, Slovenia, Croatia and Spain, with two points, while Japan are the only team currently without a win. Sweden play Slovenia next, while Spain can bounce back against Japan, a team coached by a Spanish coach, Antonio Carlos Ortega.