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The under-21 team took a necessary victory in the Euro Cup tie against Luxembourg in a match where the final numbers were scored at 4-0. After an early dismissal of a Luxembourg player, Jesper Karlsson scored the winning goal in the 22nd minute from a penalty. Nine minutes later, Daleho Irandust’s pass found the lone Max Svensson, who was able to easily score his debut goal in his second U-21 appearance.
– It was fun, my first goal here. It’s always special to represent the national team, especially fun to score goals too.
The 22-year-old Helsingborgs IF had to do it at home at Olympia and started on the right in an offensive midfield position. Svensson generally starts from the left at HIF.
– No, it was nothing special. More alone than today I started on the right, which I had not done in almost two years in the club’s team. But it was not surprising, outside midfielder as outside midfielder, I’ve played as a forward now too lately. I mix a bit and it works well, says Max Svensson.
Karlsson scored another goal and Felix Beijmo set the final score at 4-0 in the second half. Sweden is one point behind Italy, which ranks second in Group 1. But the next game against Armenia on September 13 will be played in Poland’s Lublin. This is because Armenia, which is outside the EU, cannot travel to Sweden.
How do you feel about that?
– Damn, boring and really unnecessary. It’s the spontaneous feeling that we are here in Helsingborg and we would play the second game here too, which would have been good of course. Partly to avoid the flight and change hotels etc, we also enjoyed playing here. At least I do, says Max Svensson with a laugh.
Svensson is going through a difficult time with the HIF club team, which is in the Allsvenskan qualifying spot. But the HIF product doesn’t believe the pressure will ease when switching to a different environment in the U21 team.
– You release the Helsingborg bubble when you reach the national team and vice versa. You meet new people and have fun when you are away here, then fully concentrate when you leave. It’s just fun, says Max Svensson.
Is there less pressure when you wear the national team jersey?
– I don’t feel pressure as big as that. We were in a pretty similar situation last year and we had a war, and in the end we got some big victories. We must believe in ourselves.
