Alongside 41:18 and 43:30 wins against Slovenia in 2004 and 2006, this was Norway’s biggest EHF EURO win ever. The Slovaks conceded their third defeat in Innsbruck and their 13th in their 15th EHF EURO match.
GROUP E
Slovakia vs Norway 15:38 (8:20)
- it was clear early on what direction the match would go in, when Slovak goalkeeper Bella Oláhová received a direct red card in the ninth minute; that prompted a 9:0 run from Norway and 12 minutes without a Slovak goal
- Norway ran a wave of counter attacks on the Slovak goal – and fastbreak specialist Camilla Herrem had a perfect run, scoring seven goals from seven attempts in only 21 minutes’ playing time in the first half
- the eight goals Slovakia scored in the first half was jointly the second lowest half-time score in the EHF EURO 2024 so far
- in the 34th minute Alena Dvoršáková had to leave the court after an injury, ruling out another option for coach Jorge Duenas, who had already had to replace Barbora Lancz
- as against Slovenia, Tatiana Šutranová was Slovakia’s best scorer, this time with five goals; 12 of 14 Norwegian players were on the score board, topped by Herrem (eight goals), who was also awarded Player of the Match, presented by Grundfos
Hard-hit Slovaks, happy Herrem
Slovakia could not have been hit harder: two clear defeats, the early elimination from the main round after two match days, then their EHF EURO top scorer Barbora Lancz, who scored 16 goals in the first two matches, was out for the last match due to an injury. And after eight minutes goalkeeper Bella Oláhová received a direct red card for being out of the goal area, trying to stop Camilla Herrem’s counter-attack on the way to Norway’s 6:4 lead.
And Herrem’s role was the perfect example of how seriously Norway took the match: the Olympic and European champions executed their counter-attacks as fast and efficiently as this was a final. Norway naturally used their full rotation, but regardless of which players were on court, they played with full power and speed before finally slowing down in the last quarter of the game.
I think that now for the majority of players this is the first big competition, so I think it’s the experience and try to realise for the future that this kind of tournaments are really hard and you must be focused the whole time.
We want to win every game we play, we should win these matches here because we have a good team and we are better team than the other three, but you always have to take it seriously and be humble and have respect for the task.
