Sweden lost the World Cup to Belarus | NHL.com

Sweden also lost its second match in the Hockey World Cup in Riga. Belarus won Sunday’s group stage match 1-0 and Tre Kronor must now line up the wins to reach the quarter-finals.

It’s not the start we wanted, but we haven’t given up yet. We don’t have a choice. We have to win the next match. We didn’t give up, but it’s obviously hard, says the attacker Ricard Raquel to NHL.com/sv.

Tre Kronor’s tough start continued on the hockey field on Sunday. After yesterday’s 3-4 loss to Denmark, Sweden needed to beat Belarus, but the Sweden players could not get a hole in the Belarusian goalkeeper Danny Taylor.

It was the first time ever that Belarus had defeated Sweden in a World Cup, and the Swedish national team is now starting with two consecutive losses. Difficult starting position for the rest of the tournament.

Tweet from IIHFHockey: Belarus beat the Swedes today for the first time ever at #IIHFWorlds. Oh, and by the way…with closing! 🇸🇪🇧🇾 Check out their most notable historical victories.

– I don’t think we solidified it and got the group together properly. We didn’t cause it to fall into place on the ice. There is a lot to do there. Today we have chances to win the match, but when you don’t step in as a team and are a little scattered and after we lose the opening match, it’s easy to get aggravated. “We have to take a step back, see what we do and try to improve,” says Sweden captain Johan Garbenlov.

Sweden did not start the match during the first two periods and despite 21 shots in the first 40 minutes, the team did not manage to create any really hot goal chances. In the third inning, came the goal that will prove decisive.

During breaks, it’s fine. We put pressure on them throughout the game and I still think they were good off the bench throughout the game. We chew and just try to take change for the sake of change. The feeling is that we have to score goals and come close to scoring goals in every change when we have a lot of time in their area. But it gets stressful when the clock is ticking and we haven’t equalized yet. The feeling in breaks is that we put them where we want them, says Raquel, but it’s just that we don’t identify opportunities.

Tre Kronor lost the puck to the offensive blue, and after a turn, Mikhail Stefanovic was able to play with German Nesterov who put 1–0 behind Swedish goalkeeper Adam Redborn.

– It’s been two games for us. We mostly dominated the disc today and had chances to win, but we couldn’t score. That’s what was decided today, says Ricard Raquel.

After the goal, Sweden raised their tempo a bit and were close to equalizing when they hit crossbar Lawrence Bellot. The pressure on the Belarusian box office increased even more in the final minutes, but despite the national team captain Garbenlov being knocked out by the goalkeeper, Sweden did not score 1-1.

All I can say is that we had chances, but you create luck for yourself. We have to find ways to win matches and we haven’t. Now we lost two, Raquel says, but we have to move on.

[NHL.com/sv bevakar Hockey-VM 2021 från Riga, Lettland]

Sweden’s loss twice in a row means that the team is in sixth place in Group A. The upcoming matches will therefore be very important as to whether the team reaches the quarter-finals. Switzerland waits on Tuesday before the Czech Republic faces opposition on Thursday. Sweden has a total of five matches left.

Of course, it is difficult to lose the first two matches. But it’s not over and it’s up to us to change that if we want to continue in the tournament. It’s win or lose, nothing else matters. We have to win the next match. We take it day in and day out, Raquel says.

Karl Klingberg, who scored two goals against Denmark, was knocked out. No update came from national team captain Garbenlov after the match.

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