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Sweden made a plucky attempt to come back from two sets and managed to force a tie-break in a bid for their first win in these qualifiers, but Croatia took control of the fifth set from the onset and grabbed the last-minute which secured them second place in the pool behind the Netherlands, regardless of tomorrow's match.

Croatia's Leo Andric with 33 points, including five aces, was the top scorer of the game. Sweden's Viktor Lindberg served a match high of six aces, though Jakob Link was the best scorer of the Scandinavians with 16 points.

Sweden completed their EuroVolley 2021 qualifiers obligations winless, after four matches.

Croatia opposite Leo Andric: "The game was just too much. We had 2-0, but I don't know how, we stopped playing like we did at the beginning. Luckily, I can say, we took the fifth set, beacuase it could have gone either way. So now I'm happy, everybody's happy and maybe we have the chance to take one of the best second-place postions - but we need to take as many points as we can tomorrow."

Sweden captain Viktor Lindberg: "We had a tough game and really wanted to win but after the second we knew it was already over for us in order to go to the European Championships. I think that took some pressure off us so we could play more freely and we took the next two sets. But in the end I think Croatia are a bit more physical than we are. Our last game was less than 24 hours ago and our guys are pretty tired. Altogether not so fun to be Sweden right now, but we'll do better next time."