Anna Kristensen secures final against Norway for Denmark
For ten years, since the 32:25 at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Romania had not beaten Denmark in competitive matches, but on Saturday the fans in Polivalent Hall in Bucharest had hoped for the end of this series. Their hopes were shattered, as the hosts were beaten again, this time in the second semi-final of the EHF EURO Cup.
Thanks to the 28:20 victory, highlighted by 15 saves by goalkeeper Anna Kristensen, Denmark completed the all-Scandinavian final against Norway on Sunday (16:00 CEST, live on EHFTV) – the re-match of the 2022 and 2024 EHF EURO finals, both won by the Norwegians. Before, at 13:13 CEST, Romania face Hungary for the bronze medal.
I really love to play in Romania, mainly in this arena with this great atmosphere. In the first half we needed to adapt to the Romanians, and we needed to find out how to defend them. After the break, Anna Kristensen did an amazing job, we defended harder and scored some easy goals, which made life easier for us. You cannot win a handball match in the first half, this is what we knew.
Now I hope that after losing the last two EURO finals against Norway, three is a lucky charm for us. It is always fun to play against them, this is the team we look up to. If we give our best, we can have a chance to beat them. I don’t think that a EURO cup final is already a hint for the EURO, of course, I would be happy if it comes like this. But there is still a long time before the start.
Instead of playing as a team, we focused on individual actions after the break and our defence was not strong enough. There is a lot to learn from this match, and if we want to beat Hungary and to win the bronze medal, we need to play much better.
