Paris 2024 | Magical Bundsen propels Sweden into semi-finals at Hungary's expense

Sweden tied the score with five seconds to go in regular time to push the quarter-final against Hungary into extra-time, where the Scandinavian side outplayed their opponent and extended their run at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with a 36:32 extra-time win.

Goalkeeper Johanna Bundsen had a fantastic outing, with 22 saves for a 42% saving effiiciency, being Sweden’s hero throughout the match, but especially in extra-time, where she conceded the first goal after seven minutes and 50 seconds.

PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC GAMES
QUARTER-FINALS
Hungary vs Sweden 32:36 a.e.t.  (15:16; 29:29)

A quarter-final is the most difficult match at the Olympic Games, according to any team featuring in the competition. After the surge of adrenaline caused by securing safe passage from the preliminary round, the teams need to reset and focus on a match that is do-or-die. Win and advance to the semi-finals. Lose and go home.

Therefore, both Hungary and Sweden were playing under immense pressure, and that was to be seen in Hungary’s start, when the youngest team at this Olympics, with an average age of only 26.2 years old, fell behind by two goals, 1:3. But they immediately bounced back and tied the score, 6:6, with everything on the cards.

Sweden, spurred by a great defence and a pair of saves from Johanna Bundsen, who finished the first half with nine saves and a 38% saving efficiency, took control once again, as line player Linn Blohm and left wing Elin Hansson were unstoppable, while right back Nathalie Hagman, one of the most consistent scorers in the Scandinavian team, missed three shots.

From a 9:6 lead, Sweden controlled the first half, improving their lead to four goals, 14:10, but Hungary immediately came back and cut the gap to a single goal, as right back Katrin Klujber, the best scorer in the match, finished the first half with four goals. Yet Hungary were still one goal down at the break, 15:16, missing the chance to tie the score three times, due to centre back Petra Simon missing her shots.

It was again Klujber who spurred a fantastic start of the second half for Hungary, which took their first lead after 38 minutes, 20:19, with Klujber and right wing Viktoria Gyori-Lukacs combining for six goals to start the second half. But once Hungary really got into the game, Sweden failed to control the match.

Klujber continued to create chance after chance, being in her best form, scoring 11 goals, to improve her overall tally at Paris 2024 to 38 goals, and become the top goal scorer of the competition, with four goals more than Dutch right wing Angela Malestein.

But in the end, it came down to the last moments of the match. First, Sweden had the chance to go ahead with 50 seconds to go, but Nina Koppang turned the ball over, during the first seven-on-six attack deployed by Sweden in the match. And then, centre back Petra Vamos broke through and scored her sixth goal of the match, to take Hungary to a 29:28 lead.

In the last attack of the match, Koppang tied the score, 29:29, pushing it into extra-time, where Hungary’s attack collapsed under the pressure. In the first half, the Scandinavian side did not concede a goal for the entire five minutes, with Bundsen saving four shots, to help her side take a 31:29 lead.

It went from bad to worse for Hungary, with Bundsen totally dominating her opponents, finishing the match with 22 saves, for a 42% saving efficiency. And when Hungary finally scored, after seven minutes and 50 seconds, it was too little, too late, as Sweden had already built a five-goal lead, 34:29. Eventually, the Scandinavian side clinched a 36:32 win, celebrating a hard-fought win against a strong Hungary side, which bows out in the quarter-finals, exactly like at Tokyo 2020.

The first semi-final in the women’s handball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has, therefore, been set, with France facing Sweden on Thursday, in the battle for a ticket to the big final.