Sweden enjoy big advantage over Uruguay

This meeting could hardly have changed anything for both rivals, as it was clear before the match that Sweden would finish top of Group C and start the main round with four points, while Uruguay would have to move to the President's Cup.

And the European team demonstrated their superiority, beating their opponents by as many as 35 goals, which is the biggest win of the competition. 

Group C

Uruguay vs Sweden 12:47 (8:25)

In the previous matches, Andreas Palicka and Mikael Appelgren did a great job for Sweden, and now the coaching staff gave a chance to the third-choice goalkeeper Tobias Thulin. And the 27-year-old played an outstanding match, finishing it with an impressive 21 saves and a 68% save rate. 

It took the 27-year-old only a short time to show his quality as he had already recorded two saves in the first minute. The European champions relied on a free-flowing attack and scored easy goals, so the difference between the sides was clear. Ten minutes into the match, Uruguay's coach Nicolás Guerra was forced to take his first timeout as his team were down 2:7.

However, it did not help much. Hampus Wanne was unstoppable, scoring as many as 10 goals before the break. Niclas Ekberg and Eric Johansson combined for 11 more, so Sweden's 17-goal lead after 30 minutes looked entirely logical and did not leave the South Americans even the slightest chance for a comeback.

Wanne and Ekberg were rested in the second half as Glenn Solberg rotated his squad, but Sweden was not going to slow down. Thulin stood like a wall, restricting Uruguay to just four goals after the break and a meagre 27% shot efficiency throughout the match. 

Before this encounter, Denmark had scored the highest number of goals in a single match at Poland/Sweden 2023, 43 against Belgium. The big question was whether Sweden would outscore the world champions, and they did, ultimately netting 47 times. 

Lucas Pellas did a good job in the second half, scoring five goals, while Johansson increased his tally to 11, becoming the top scorer of the match, and he also made eight assists. 

In the main round Group II, Sweden will meet three fellow European sides, Iceland, Hungary and Portugal. At the same time, Uruguay should try to claim a long-awaited victory in the President's Cup, where they will face Chile, Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea in Group I. 

hummel Player of the Match: Tobias Thulin (Sweden)