Led by Camilla Herrem, only a stone’s throw from her hometown of Sola, the Norwegian handball girls had a brilliant World Cup opening in Stavanger. Herrem scored seven of the goals as Norway won 43-11. Greenland started with the ball, and with that got the opportunity to take the lead against the reigning champions. They did not take advantage of that chance, and at the opposite end Henny Reistad had the honor of scoring Norway’s first goal in this World Cup. Greenland responded by attacking fearlessly, and Andrea Heilmann clinched the equalizer to huge cheers from the Greenlandic players. – It is fantastic to see. It’s as if they’ve won the entire championship, said news expert Amanda Kurtovic about the sporting joy of the Greenland camp. And that joy was far from over. After the amateurs managed another equalizer to 2-2, the Greenlandic commentators were in a good mood. – They hug each other in the commentator’s box in front here. They are simply ecstatic. It is a dream opening, said news commentator Patrick Sten Rowlands. However, it was to be the last time the islanders could cheer for an equaliser, but they still held on well for a while longer. After eight minutes, Norway led 5-4. – I don’t think Norway has underestimated them at all, but it seems a bit hesitant, a bit half-hearted, and you are not fully involved in defence. At least it’s not the best we’ve seen from Norway, Kurtovic said then. Greenland continued to be a few goals behind until 8-6, but then Norway lifted a few notches. After 12 minutes without a behind for Silje Solberg-Østhassel, who on Saturday played her first match after becoming a mother in August, Norway increased their lead to 16-6. Goalkeeper Solberg-Østhassel was even responsible for one of the goals. At the break it was 19-7 to Thorir Hergeirsson’s women. – They got off to a fantastic start. I don’t think they expected that at all. They almost looked shocked themselves, Kurtovic said. The news expert, who has previously won Olympic, World Cup and European Championship gold with Norway, pointed to Greenland’s choice to move away from seven to six in attack as a bad move to get chances. – As soon as they got away from that, they didn’t get any chances. Then they simply had no chance against a strong Norwegian defence, Kurtovic said. Norway’s assistant coach Mats Olsson doesn’t think it was half-baked with seven behinds during the first half. – There is no bad team in any way. They can play handball and have their moves. They were allowed to hold on to the ball for a while at the start, Olsson told news during the break. After the break, Greenland went back to attacking in seven against six, and got some scores with it. But with the keeper off target, the goals quickly came back. Olivia Lykke Nygaard took over for Solberg-Østhassel in the Norwegian goal, and scored two goals in her WC debut. It was also the WC debut for Maja Furu Sæteren, and she also left her mark on the second half with five goals.
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Norway crushed Greenland in the WC opening – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule
