EHF EURO Croatia 2018 Official Magazine

New yellow submarine
A huge handball name, probably Europe’s biggest of all time. Four-time European champions in the time when
Bengt Johansson and his team ruled the handball world with Olympic gold being the only medal they never won
- despite playing in four finals. However, perfection is a strangely rare thing and probably the reason why the
‘Bengan Boys’ led by Magnus Wislander, Staffan Olsson and Stefan Lövgren did not win it all. Croatia are also
partly to blame for that, having beaten them in the Olympic final in Atlanta in 1996.
Sweden are playing great handball with all the work they have put in with youngsters throughout the period of
almost 10 years clearly paying off. They have been missing out on medals for quite a long time now, with their
home EHF EURO in Stockholm all the way back in 2002 the last competition they won. Since then, they have
only earned silver at the London 2012 Olympics but they seem to be more than ready to make that final step
towards the spotlight.
A classy team, solid in defence, imaginative in attack. A team, which keeps the pace sky-high throughout the
match. Their key features are rock-strong defence led by Max Darj and Jesper Nielsen, great goalkeepers Mikael
Appelgren and Andreas Palicka, who both have Bundesliga experience, quick wingers, who rarely miss, coming
from THW Kiel (Niclas Ekberg) and Rhein-Neckar Löwen (Jerry Tollbring). Considering their organised attack,
they are quite fast with great solutions mostly coming from playmaker Jim Gottfridsson and left-hander Albin
Lagergren.
Will the ‘yellow submarine’ sail towards the throne in Croatia? They must remember the gold medal they won at
the EHF EURO 2000 in Zagreb!
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