It's great that we won this match. They won all sets in the group and have been really good. It feels fantastic that we could beat them, says Jonatan Hellvig.
The spectacular arena at the foot of the Eiffel Tower is made for Olympic Games fairy tales with happy endings.
It can still become that for Olympic debutants David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig.
The 22-year-old star players were the best in the world during the spring, came to Paris as one of Sweden's gold hopes and in the premiere against Australia, they achieved their 18th straight victory.
Two straight losses
Then it temporarily stopped.
Two straight losses in the group stage finale, against Qatar and Italy, meant unbeaten Cubans Noslen Diaz/Jorge Alayo in the round of 16.
It was just a matter of reloading. We're good when we play our game and dare to believe in it, says Åhman.
The Swedes won the first set in a landslide, 21–11, in front of the enthusiastic and loud crowd, where the majority supported Cuba.
"Lots of mistakes"
Nice to have such a good start to the match. We played almost flawlessly in the first set and they made lots of mistakes. But we knew it would get tighter in the second set and that we wouldn't get as many free points, says David Åhman.
That's what happened.
The Cubans went up to 18–16, but Åhman and Hellvig came back and had several match points – without being able to decide.
Instead, Cuba forced a deciding set thanks to 28–26. In the third and final set, Sweden took command directly and didn't let go.
15–11 means that the medal hunt continues for the Swedish duo, next in the quarterfinals against Brazil or the Netherlands on Tuesday.
Our goal before was to reach the quarterfinals. It feels fantastically fun that we're there, says Jonatan Hellvig.
