The blue-yellow men's national team came to the Olympic Games in Paris as one of the big Swedish medal hopes, but the premiere loss against Germany on Saturday left a lot of question marks.
Many were straightened out in the meeting with Spain.
After a tie 11-11 at halftime, it eventually became a comfortable win against one of the toughest opponents in the group.
Very big difference compared to the first match, across the entire pitch, says Tobias Thulin, who got the chance from the start when national team captain Glenn Solberg made significant changes to the starting lineup.
"Controlling the match"
Sweden had a four-goal lead already at the end of the first half, but when the offense stalled, Spain caught up just in time for halftime.
But Sweden – and Thulin – had a gear to shift into in the second half. A strong start with 5-1 in five minutes meant a 16-12 lead – and a grip that Sweden never let go of.
Spain has problems getting into good positions against us. We may not get as many counter-attack opportunities as we want in the first half, but in the start of the second, we get the match where we want it and can run at them. Then I think we control the match, says the goalkeeper.
The wing players Sebastian Karlsson and Lucas Pellas, who are club teammates in Montpellier, were both successful up front with five goals each.
Slovenia in the next match
Four teams out of six advance from each group in the Olympic Games, but it can become extremely important to become first or second to likely avoid heavyweights Denmark and France already in the quarterfinals.
We have three important matches left in the group stage and of course aim to win all of them, to get as good a placement as possible in the group stage, says Thulin.
Glenn Solberg:
It's clear that Denmark looks very strong and it's maybe not the team you want to meet in a quarterfinal. But I feel that anything can happen.
The Norwegian was "incredibly pleased" with the team's performance against Spain.
We can see Sweden's identity with extremely tight and compact defense and many counter-attacks. Moreover, that we utilize the entire team, he says.
The blue-yellow team had to do without midfielder Max Darj against Spain due to a muscle injury in his thigh and he was replaced by Felix Möller. The national team hopes to have Darj back in the squad later in the week.
Sweden's group stage continues against Slovenia on Wednesday. Later, Croatia and Japan await.
