Angola on brink of top 10, defeat Sweden for just second time in history 

In the seven previous meetings between these two teams, the African champions had only won once against their European opponents.

But they doubled their historic victory record on the final day of their 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship campaign, defeating the Swedes by two goals to confirm their best ranking since 2011 (8th) and the European team’s lowest since finishing 13th in the same event.

Angola – coached for the first time in a World Championship by Carlos Viver – will know whether they have cracked the top 10 one the main round finishes on Monday (8 December).

Main Round, Group IV
Angola vs Sweden 26:24 (10:10)

With both teams having nothing to play for except pride, thanks to being knocked out of quarter-final contention on the last matchday, a sluggish, defensive first half display which ended 10:10, gave way to a more flowing second.

It was a game of scoring and not scoring, with Sweden not able to hit the net from the 21st-31st minute and then both sides exchanging runs in the second period. 

First, Angola went on a 4:0 run (15:12) to go ahead by three, extending it to four with the last quarter remaining. Then it was time for the Swedes to reciprocate with their own 4:0 run to bring it level inside the last 10 minutes (20:20). Finally, another 4:0 run from Angola killed the game (24:20) with three minutes remaining (24:20) as Sweden could not get their attack functioning.

Evidence of the issues faced by Sweden down the other end of the court was best demonstrated in the 37th minute when Vilma Pegado Nenganga had the freedom of the Westfalenhalle as the Swedish defence were completely blind-sided by a run from Dolores Rosario, who took out half of the defence with her move while evidence of the Angolan defensive stand was highlighted by captain Albertina Kassoma who made three block in a row, including plucking an attempted shot right out of the air.

Having played almost 55 minutes of the game and making 13 saves, Angola goalkeeper Marta Alberto was given the best player award, her captain praising her performance.

“We were expecting that the game will be really tough, because we know that Sweden is one of the best teams, so we just hoped that we will come and we will leave everything we have, because it's the last game,” said the captain.

“Today, our defence and the goalkeeper was just amazing. It was a good tournament for us, because last time we finished in 15th place and now, we will be better. We improve, but we also wanted to go farther, but we'll just keep working to the next one to be better and better.”

For Sweden’s Linn Blohm, her mood reflected that of the players, who were shocked on court at the final whistle, taking in the defeat.

“We had so big problems to score in this game, that is why we lost,” she said. “We are not satisfied at all. I think we lost this tournament against Brazil in the group phase then we knew it was going to be hard to come to the quarter-finals. We really tried to come up again and find some energy, but we are not satisfied with what we have performed. I cannot event say that when we won some games, we have played good. It’s a very hard feeling.”

hummel Player of the Match: Marta Samuel Alberto (Angola)