The tough opposition began when Stina Källberg was pitted against Jieni Shao. The 54th-ranked Shao started strong and quickly went up to 2-0 in sets. Then the 84th-ranked Källberg woke up and the Swede caught up and forced a decisive fifth set.
There, the Swede had a 7-3 lead but the Portuguese came back and eventually won 11-9. Thus 3-2 in sets and 1-0 to Portugal.
"It's a loss that hurts something huge. At the same time, the performance is at the highest level, a shame that she could not tie the bag, summed up SVT Sports expert David Gustafsson.
The next match was 27th-ranked Fu Yu against Sweden's number one Linda Bergström. It was an even story but Yu eventually won 3-0 in sets (11-9, 11-9, 11-7).
"It's just empty"
Next in line of the Swedes was Filippa Bergand who got to face 312-ranked Matilde Pinto in a must-win match for Sweden. And the 24-year-old held
for the pressure. The Swede won 3-1 in sets (11-4, 7-11, 11-8, 11-7) and reduced for Sweden.
Time for Linda Bergström again who this time clashed with the undefeated Jieni Shao. The Swede took the first set but eventually fell 3–1 in sets and Sweden is thus eliminated from the European Team Championship.
"It's just empty. Hard to put it into words immediately afterwards. There are small details missing, says Linda Bergström to SVT Sport after the match.