A commanding 48:10 win against Puerto Rico on Sunday not only secured Sweden’s main round berth, but also saw Nathalie Hagman setting a new record. The right wing from the French club Nantes Atlantique Handball scored as many as 19 goals, which no player of Sweden’s men’s or women’s teams had previously managed in one match. 

“It was a funny game. We easily won, stood well in defence, and my teammates gave me a lot of good passes, which helped me to score so many goals,” Hagman told ihf.info.

The 30-year-old netted 10 times already by minute 20, but now she says that she did not really focus on any records.

“I was supposed to play about 50% of the game, as our coach wanted to give time to all players. But another right wing Evelina Kallhage got a red card, so I stayed on the court longer than expected. Only in the end of the game, I started to think about the record,” admits the Swede, who received a lot of congratulation messages after the match.

In fact, Hagman broke her own record, which dates back to the EHF EURO 2018, when she netted 17 times against Russia in a main round match, won 39:30 by Sweden. The right wing still calls that game the best in her international career.

“Now I scored more goals, but I don’t think the match against Puerto Rico was my best for Sweden. The rival was not very strong this time,” she said.

With 24 goals, Hagman topped the scoring chart of the World Championship after two rounds of games, but becoming top scorer of the tournament is not her primary goal.

“Of course I want to score a lot and help my team to win. But many matches are still to be played, and now I just focus on the next game with Netherlands.”

So far, Hagman is quite happy with the performance of her team, who beat Uzbekistan and Puerto Rico with an impressive aggregate score 94:25 and booked their ticket to the next stage.

“Our wins were quite easy, but they helped us to get confidence. I think we haven’t done too many technical fouls or stupid things in these encounters,” she said.

The difference between the European teams and the two other sides in Group D is striking, but Hagman does not think that increasing the number of the event participants to 32 teams was a bad decision. 

“The gap between opponents in many matches is really big, but there are some positives, too. I’m happy for these girls who got a chance to play at this level. It's nice to teams like Uzbekistan or Puerto Rico here, and I think they will benefit from their participation at the World Championship,” Hagman said.

On Tuesday, Sweden will face Netherlands not just for the top spot in the group, but also for the points to take with them into the main round, and the 30-year-old looks forward to it. 

“It is a very important game. The winners will improve their chances to reach the quarter-final. Our goal is to finish the group stage with the maximum of points and leave Netherlands behind us.”

At the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Sweden created a surprise by finishing fourth, and the expectations from the team at the World Championship are quite high.

“A lot of people think that we will win the games in front of us. We did well in Tokyo, showed consistency and felt confident, which helped us to reach the semi-final. Now people are waiting for more, and we know that we can perform at a good level,” said Hagman.

“It’s hard to say where out limit is. Now we have an important game against Netherlands, and in the main round, we will face Romania and Norway. For me, Norway are top favourites of the tournament, maybe alongside France. But our goal to reach at least the quarter-final, and if we manage it, then we’ll see what happens next.”

Both Sweden’s games in Torrevieja had an audience of around 1,000 spectators, and many of them supported the Scandinavian team.

“I like the atmosphere here, it’s nice to see so many Swedish people in yellow jerseys. I’m very satisfied with the support we get in Spain,” Hagman concluded. 

Photos: RFEBM / J. L. Recio