After winning the IHF Men’s World Championship 22 years ago in Egypt, Sweden will look for history to repeat itself on Sunday at Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex.

In the semi-final against France, an inexperienced, but gritty and hungry Swedish side boasted a terrific 86 percent attacking efficiency to take one of the finest-ever wins in the history of the competition, 32:26.

Sweden will have to wait to know who their opponent in the final will be, but this is undoubtedly a walk to remember, a tournament in which they went undefeated until the final.

SEMI-FINAL
France vs Sweden 26:32 (13:16)

From the start, Sweden amassed goals, with a 100 percent efficiency in the first 25 minutes of the game. While Jonathan Carlsborgard shot with amazing speed – 114 km/h – and Hampus Wanne did his usual thing on the wing, France had little to no answer, both in the attack and in defence.

When Sweden made mistakes, five turnovers in the first half – France seemed poised to get back into the game with backs Dika Mem and Kentin Mahe assisting each other, combining for five of France’s ten assists in the first half.

But without Luka Karabatic and Timothy N’Guessan due to injury, they slowly started to fade and a 4:0 Swedish run turned the game on its head. Gille substituted goalkeeper Vincent Gerard to Yann Genty, but to no avail, as Genty saved only one shot.

Adding insult to injury, Swedish goalkeeper Andreas Palicka, the hummel Player of the Match, provided an incredible save in the final seconds of the first half, preventing France from cutting the gap to two goals. One thing was certain heading into the second half, France needed to rethink everything if they were to progress to the IHF Men’s World Championship final for the fifth time in the last seven editions.

There was some bad luck involved for France, with easy goals conceded, but also just an inability to overcome the Swedish defence. The lack of personnel to get something going in their own defence with Karabatic’s absence proved costly. In fact, it was the first semi-final of a major tournament played without any of the Karabatic brothers for France since the Men’s EHF EURO 2006.

But with eight minutes to go, France still had a chance to erase a three-goal deficit, 24:27, with Sweden’s playmaker Jim Gottfridsson side-lined after a hit from France’s Adrien Dipanda.

Guillaume Gille threw everything in, including substituting the goalkeeper with an outfield player in attack. But as he found out, Sweden are the highest scoring fast break team in the championship and demonstrated it to stay ahead.

With Swedish Hampus Wanne slowly donning the second-best scoring performance in the IHF Men’s World Championship in 12 years with 11 goals, the Nordic side never lost the advantage, securing a convincing 32:26 win to progress to the big final on Sunday.

"I don’t have words. We are doing a fantastic game from the first minute to the last. We have full control of the match I think in all phases. Defence perfect, fast-breaks as well," said Sweden coach Glenn Solberg. "We are very, very proud, very happy and looking forward to the final."

This is Sweden’s first appearance in the final since France 2001, where they lost to France.

On the other hand, France loses their first game in the tournament and will play for their second consecutive World Championship bronze medal.

hummel Player of the Match: Andreas Palicka, Sweden