Sweden tops Norway in Scandinavian rivalry – 05.12.2016

Defending champions Sweden accomplished their second victory in Arena Riga. The Norwegian resistance was not enough to achieve a good result tonight. Sweden defeated neighbors 8-2 (3-0, 0-1, 5-1).

The Swedes won Latvia in their tournament opening match, meanwhile Norway started with a bad loss to Czech Republic. Sweden began as the favorite with massive attacks and great chances to score. There was only 02:23 played when Johannes Larsson scored the first goal. He repeated it five minutes later making the score 2-0 for the Swedish side. Norway reacted with some classy counter attack, unfortunately they were unlucky and did not manage to put the ball in the net. The defending Champions completed the first period with one more goal and a comfortable 3-0 result.

Norway began the second period with big hopes and a quick goal scored by Markus Lindgjerdet. It was a tough period for the Swedes because the Norwegians with their pressure and fast hands were close to score again. On the other side Norwegian goalkeeper Markus Jelsnes showed fantastic reaction in stopping their opponents´ attacks.

The stunning battle returned in period three. In the begining Ole Mossin Olesen found his opponents´ mistake and made it 2-3. Things became serious for Sweden. Later in the third Alexander Galante Carlstrom finally beat Norwegian goalkeeper Jelsnes. After that he completely ruined Norway´s hopes of scoring two more goals. When time was 55:40, Kim Nilsson managed to score another one. Final score was 8-2 for Swedish team. This is the second win for Sweden in Riga. They will challenge Czech Republic for 1st place in Group A. Norway will face Latvia to fight for a better place in play-off three.