The blue-yellow team left Paris on Sunday, but there's no complaining about the Olympic Games party going on in Lille.
The quarterfinals offered a new audience world record (26,548) for women's handball when France defeated Germany.
And now it's France that's waiting for Sweden. France, the home heroes, the gold favorites, the nightmare opponents. And a completely crazy atmosphere that the Swedish women have never faced before.
"Toughest possible"
The audience pressure is good almost everywhere at the Olympic Games, but the acclaimed arena in Lille must be high on the list when it comes to decibel level.
Especially when France is playing.
They're singing "Allez les bleus" and the Marseillaise, and in between, it's an ear-deafening roar almost all the time.
Most people probably think that France will take the gold, so we get the toughest possible opponents. It can't get any bigger. France in France with 27,000 in the stands. For my part, I just take it as a carrot, you feel like you want to show that we can too, says midfielder Linn Blohm.
When the Swedish national team players met the media outside their new Olympic accommodation, it had been a night since the quarterfinal drama against Hungary. Then it was saves from Bundsen (22) and decisive contributions from Nina Koppang (seven goals) that strongly contributed to the victory.
If we're going to beat France, everyone will need to be at the top. It's a lot to ask, but it's somewhere the conditions apply. We need to get an even match and take it to a point where they start getting worried and thinking they can lose, says national team coach Tomas Axnér.
Don't want to be fourth again
He has led Sweden to two fourth places, in the Olympic Games in Tokyo and the World Championship last year. Before that, it was a fourth place in the World Championship in 2017 – but no medal ever in a global championship.
So it is, we've been up there in many championships and it's clear that you dream of getting to leave with a medal, says Johanna Bundsen.
Sweden has not defeated France since 2014 and has since then had twelve straight meetings without a win against the home nation.
It's clear that it's a pretty bad record when we go into the match tomorrow, but we have nothing to lose. And we still have an incredibly strong faith in our game and what we do, says the goalkeeper star.
