THE BALL – Portugal loses to Sweden and is out of the World Cup (Handball)
The National Team’s dream of reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup ended tonight, after losing to Sweden, European champion and world runner-up, by 30-32, at the Scandianavium Arena in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Already guaranteed in the knockout round with the leadership of group II of the main round, the Nordics, even so, needed to pull from the parchments to overcome Portugal, which reached the break leading by a goal (13-14) and needed to draw or win to be the country that accompanied Sweden to the quarterfinals.
With goalkeepers Mikael Appelgren and Tobias Thulin blocking the Swedish goal, and Daniel Pettersson, with eight goals in as many shots, delayed them to the point of controlling the six goals ahead (25-19).
The 7×6 system, which had already defeated the Swedes at the Euro 2020 in Malmo, allowed for recovery with many assists from captain Rui Silva (6), António Areia immaculate in the conversion of seven meters and beyond (8/8) and Victor Iturriza (7) irreproachable in the final stretch in which Portugal recovered by a goal difference, but what happened was already written, so that Portugal, fourth in the group, is classified between 13th and 16th places in the fifth participation in championships of the World, continuing to be the best ranking of 10th place in Egypt-2021.