When France and Sweden clash in the first semi-final of the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship in Cairo, Egypt tonight (18:30 CAT), it will pit the perfect French (7 wins from 7 games), against the unbeaten Swedes.

In fact, along with Spain and Denmark in the other semi-final (21:30 CAT), it is the first time ever that the last four teams standing are unbeaten in an IHF Men’s World Championship since the introduction of semi-finals.

At Egypt 2021 Glenn Solberg’s Sweden have won five and drawn two so far, dispatching North Macedonia (32:20), Chile (41:26), Egypt (24:23), Russian Handball Federation Team (34:20) and Qatar, in the quarter-finals on Wednesday (27 January), 35:23, while being held against both Belarus (26:26) and Slovenia (28:28) in the main round.

A top four team?

These results have meant the Swedes are now in the top four in the world for the first time since 2011 (4th) and just third time this millennium (2nd in 2001), and for their left wing and top scorer (47 goals) at Egypt 2021, Hampus Wanne, he is undecided on whether their semi-final place equates them to be put in the same bracket as Spain, France and Denmark in more general terms.

“It’s hard to say,” he said. “The other three teams [in the semi-finals] have shown in the years before that they are more consistent than we have been. If you look at their teams, they also have much more experience when it comes to winning league titles throughout Europe like the Champions League.

“But handball is a big sport in Sweden,” he added. “From the old days it became a tradition to follow, but we’re not going to start comparing ourselves against the older guys who won the medals. I also believe it is a different sport today let’s say, but we strive to do the absolute best we can.”

Resilience

Those games against Egypt and Belarus saw Solberg’s team behind at the break (9:12 against Egypt and 11:15 against Belarus), but they powered back to win and draw respectively, keeping intact their unbeaten record, but also showing something else, according to Wanne.

“They’re really important as they give us a lot of confidence and now, we know that if we’re behind we’re able to come back,” said Wanne about overturning those half-time deficits.

“Of course, it’s harder now [in the semi-finals], especially against a team like France. They’ve shown in the last years that they are a great force in handball, but still, we are going to try our best, stick to our game plan and then we’ll see.”

Quick switching, clear plan

That game plan relies on an aggressive defence and a quick break down court which sees Sweden currently top the fast-break charts at Egypt 2021, with 46 goals scored via the quick transition from defence to attack, something which has paid dividends and was made clear when Solberg took over last year.

“He made a very good and very clear plan for us; that we were going to be a team which runs very much, and our defence was going to be very aggressive,” said the left winger. “And, as it shows, everyone has accepted because we have done it every single game. It’s been great and he has done great now.

“It’s a hard thing to be a national coach; you need to make a group work very well in a short period of time,” he added. “But our guys that we have here are really fit so we are able to do it (fast break) for whole games, day after day.

“It’s our big, main tactical theme and very clear from the beginning that that’s what we want to do. As I said, everyone understood it and are executing it really well. It’s great to see that we don’t stop doing it and that’s also why we won so big some games because we don’t stop. It’s great.”

One of those big games was against Qatar and looking at their 12-goal victory with fresh eyes the following day, Wanne is quick to highlight how important it is to follow the coaching instructions.

“It’s a mix of everything,” said Wanne about the keys to victory. “We were able to shift around our players more, we were fresher – we had one more day to recover – but we really stuck to our game plan.

“We struggled at the beginning of the game, but we kept on moving, kept doing our thing and in the end, we know the game doesn’t end in the first half so we kept on running, kept on playing an aggressive defence and we really have a belief that it can work.

“We showed against great teams, especially like Egypt and Slovenia, that it works and that gives us a lot of confidence. I’m rather impressed because we have 10 new guys that are able to stay so humble and that’s a big key.”

In the bubble

Those new players include left backs Jonathan Carlsbogard, Alfred Jonsson and Oskar Sunnefeldt, centre back Jonathan Edvardsson and right back Lukas Sandell, who had just six senior team appearances between them when the extended squad list for Egypt was submitted a month before the championship.

And along with Wanne, all have had to adjust to life in the so-called ‘red bubble’ at Egypt – including playing a different type of game to pass the time.

“A big group of us are playing Football Manager,” added Wanne about him and his teammates Jim Gottfridsson, Lucas Pellas, Peter Johannesson and Daniel Pettersson competing together on the football management simulation game.

“We chose the Italian league, and everyone then had to choose a team and it went from there,” he explained. “It started in Eskilstuna when we first met up (at the Egypt 2021 preparation camp) and it’s been going ever since. I have been playing Atalanta, it’s not been going so well. The other guys are playing Napoli and some other bigger clubs, so it’s hard, but it’s fun, really fun. It’s a great way to kill time.

“When we play tournaments like this, even without the pandemic, in Sweden at least, we always say we are in the bubble because you really don’t want to do anything else other than sleep, eat and recover,” added the SG Flensburg-Handewitt player.

“We have training, recovery training and lots of things to do, like treatment. We have three or four hours a day to kill let’s say, but here [in Egypt] I feel like the days have gone by rather quickly actually. 

“We know, and we knew, when we were playing down here that it was going to be a special tournament. In Germany, they have very hard restrictions there so it will almost be strange to go back to the ‘normal life’, but for me at least, I am used to this [routine in Egypt] now.

“Some players have problems getting to sleep after games because of all the adrenaline, but for me personally I don’t have so much problem with that – it was nice to wake up (after the Qatar win) knowing we are in the top four in the world.”

France in the way of a potential Egypt golden repeat

With Sweden just one step away from a guaranteed medal, it could mean history repeating in North Africa, as the last time they won gold at an IHF Men’s World Championship, was in Egypt back in 1999, but France stand in the way to the podium and Wanne is well-aware of the threat they pose and is keen to take it game-by-game.

“We want to do everything to win a medal for Sweden,” said Wanne. “I had some other interviews before the quarter-finals where they were already talking about the final, but to reach the final would be a dream. 

“However, first and foremost, we need to find a way to beat France and that is our only goal and our only focus right now. It has been like that through the whole tournament that we don’t look ahead, because if you start doing that you might get stressed out when it’s not working in the games you are playing at the moment.

“I’ve been playing in Flensburg for eight years now and played a lot of big games,” he added. “In big games it usually comes down to the best defence. If our defence is [working] really well and helps our goalkeeper, it’s going to be really important for us. And then, of course, [we can] keep scoring these easy goals when we run so much and if we make that, it’s a semi-final, so a lot can happen.

“France have a really good defence, really good goalkeeper and have a real depth with all their players and they are favourites in this game.

“But we will try our very best to try and beat them and I believe we are a team that need to be playing at our absolute highest level every game. I don’t believe that we are team that can go into a game, regardless of our opponent, and be thinking that we can play 70% of our capacity. 

“We need to play fully-focussed every single game and I believe that has shown. If we have a game plan, we stick to it. It’s really great to see.”