A well-used phrase in sport is ‘attack wins you matches, but defence wins you championships,’ and Sweden at France 2017 have the statistics to back this up so far.

After the preliminary round of the 25th IHF Men’s World Championship Sweden finished with the best attack (162 goals scored) and the second-best defence (111 goals conceded behind Germany on 107) and as they approach their quarter-final against hosts France tonight they clearly lead the attacking charts (203 goals) and defensive charts (133 conceded) of the remaining eight teams.

A large part of the success to date from Sweden, led by Icelandic coach Kristjan Andresson, is down to the Swedish defence, starting with their goalkeeping pair of Andreas Palicka and Mikael Appelgren, who have split the six hours of court time nearly equally between them.

In the goalkeeping charts Sweden lie top of the total saves per shot with 41% (94 from 227) and in fast-breaks with 53 goals from 64 chances – a spectacular 83% success rate, near the top of the charts in terms of fast-breaks scored with Croatia the only team remaining who is higher (they have an 89% success rate 34/38).

“It’s a little bit of a surprise for me that we’ve got so many fast-break goals up to now as we didn’t practice it,” said the 30-year-old Palicka to IHF.info. “We just have this team that we have, we build our defence and goalkeeper in the traditional Swedish way; everyone sees it – it’s a 6-0 – plus me and ‘The Apple’ (Appelgren) have had a good tournament.”

Palicka himself has had seven assists for goals in his six games, but the Rhein-Neckar Lowen player and his side do not have any hesitation when a fast-break opportunity arises.

“We have a goalkeeper trainer of course and look at videos [of our opponents] and see if they do anything special,” said Palicka after the Belarus eighth-final victory.

“Belarus had two wing players – the left wing who was flying very long and shot with a long arm, which is not usual for us, so in training we worked a bit on that, plus they also had two guys who were 2,10m so that’s also a little bit different, but you have to read the game.

“We build up from our training and we see what happens on court,” he continued. “We’re not afraid to try the fast-break; if it’s a chance, we’ll throw the ball, but now, I have a little bit of a tired shoulder.”

With just one loss in the tournament so far – a 27:25 preliminary group defeat against Denmark – Sweden were victorious against Bahrain, Argentina, Qatar and Egypt in the Preliminary Round and then a surprising 19-goal victory over Belarus in the eighth-finals where the Swedes kept up their performance for the whole match, despite the result being clear just after half-time.

“It’s a little bit of ‘our’ thing this tournament,” said Palicka when asked about keeping concentrated for the whole 60 minutes against Belarus. “We’re coming here with some experienced players but who are still a bit young, and some really young unexperienced players.

“Us players who are a little bit older we try to help them learn and say a handball game is 60 minutes if you play good or if you play bad. Against Denmark we lost and had some trouble but every other game we just ran and ran and ran – even though against Belarus we were 13 goals ahead at the break - but against France it will be a completely different game and we will have to be at our best for the whole 60 minutes.”

Palicka, who ended with 80 saves from 174 shots (46%) when Sweden won the 2007 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship in FYR Macedonia after beating Germany in the final 31:29, know their quarter-final match-up against the hosts will be tough, but understands the importance of keeping a focus as a team.

“Our concept in our games at France 2017 is to keep our concept,” said the former THW Kiel Aalborg player. “I think we are a happy influence in this tournament and when people look at us they see we run, we smile, we do our thing - we do it for 60 minutes and we’re very proud to be part of this team.

“I think we play fantastic handball and have some players who people maybe didn’t know before; Albin Lagergren and Max Darj, for example - they play like big stars and that’s fantastic to see and that’s the thing with handball you know.

“I personally love when you play away against the hosts - that’s why we do all this training; to experience and play in these sorts of games. I will dream about this game now and hope we can do some fantastic things.”

Whilst the game is on the same size handball court and feature 7v7, the quarter-final tonight will be played in the Lille football stadium in front of a sold-out 28,000+ capacity crowd and Palicka understands it is more than just a world championship game, at least for the French.

“I have to take off my hat to France,” said Palicka. “This whole world championship is a fantastic and fun experience; everything is working, the food is good, the hotel is good, everyone is smiling; the guys are happy and it’s a fantastic event if you look at the whole thing.

“We just have to enjoy it but for our young, new players to go into an arena with 28,000 people you will have to say “hey, my friend, calm down and try to focus’. I will get this feeling too, but you have to try and get into a positive way for yourself.

“On the court, you can’t actually see so much [of the fans] you see the first two tiers and then you can’t see so far, but at the warm-ups you look around as you have to know the arena. Before the Belarus game we went early and had a look around but it’s not such a big difference as I have played in the LANXESS arena in front of 21,000 people in the Champions League FINAL4 which is also a big event.”

While Palicka will be hoping to bring home the IHF Men’s World Championship trophy to Sweden to show his young family, his son misses his father and has more concerning things on his mind, despite Palicka and his Swedish squad playing in front of a record crowd tonight.

“It’s why we train you know,” said Palicka, who was born in Lund. “I talk with my son and daughter every day - they are four and one years-old, OK so maybe my daughter doesn’t speak but she looks at FaceTime.

“My son doesn’t understand why I am here - he’s angry and asking me ‘why are you not at home’?

“Maybe one day I can show him a video of this match and say that’s why I was here – the only thing he says to me is to come back with Lego City or don’t come back!”