Norway overcame a disastrous start to beat rivals Denmark 27-25 in the final of the Women鈥檚 European Handball Championships.
Norway鈥檚 women鈥檚 handball team picked up their ninth European title in Ljubljana last night. But it could have been very different, with Norway down by three goals at the break.
Handball is a popular sport in Norway, and the national teams often perform well in major tournaments. Jointly held by Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro, this 16-team tournament took place from 4 to 20 November, 2022.
Denmark raced into an early lead
Scandinavian rivals Denmark stunned Norway by racing into an early lead. The Danes stayed ahead for much of the game, leading at points by five goals.
But a combination of critical goals from Nora M酶rk and a fantastic goalkeeping performance from Katrine Lunde allowed Norway to creep back into the game.
Incidentally, the win means Lunde becomes the world鈥檚 most successful handball player at the international level, in both the men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 game.
A late turnaround
When Norway drew level at 22-22 with ten minutes to go, the unbelievable suddenly became believable and there was a clear shift in momentum on the court.
Norway took the lead for the first time with just seven minutes remaining.
M酶rk told broadcaster Viaplay she 鈥渄idn鈥檛 completely understand鈥� how Norway managed to turn the game around:
鈥淚 think this is completely surreal. This was a rollercoaster ride. We were behind for large parts of the game. Now I'm just proud and don't really understand how we did it.鈥�
Debutants surprise many
Despite Norway鈥檚 strong reputation as a handball nation, many pundits wrote them off coming into the tournament because of the high number of players making their national team debut.
鈥淚t means a lot to me, but mostly to Norwegian handball. We have a methodology and a system that works in a number of areas,鈥� said Norway鈥檚 Icelandic head coach, 脼贸rir Hergeirsson.
Speaking on Viaplay, Camilla Herrem鈥攚ho couldn鈥檛 participate in the tournament due to pregnancy鈥攈ighlighted team morale as the key factor: 鈥淣o matter who comes in, it works. I am so proud to be part of this team.鈥�
The sweetest revenge
The two sides had already met in the tournament group stage. Denmark鈥檚 31-29 win sent Norway into a semi-final against France, a supposedly tougher route to the final.
However, Norway thrashed France by eight goals to set up the final against Denmark, who knocked out Montenegro.
