Some people might have thought at the beginning of this World Championship Norway was not as powerful as usual. Some people might have thought about this idea mistakenly. Norwegian team started the championship by losing their first match against Russia, yes, they did it, and they were expected to end this Group Phase first ranked but they have not fulfilled this ‘general idea’. But well, everyone knows Norway is Norway. And this means that in really important or decisives games they will always show their toughest face. At least, they will always show why they are champions of everything. Today they have done this again. The second place of the Group D would be defined after the battle between current European champion and current European finalist. Arena Nord in Frederikshavn was almost crowded and Norway seemed to be playing as local team. Scandinavians started setting a little difference in the scoreboard but Spain didn’t let them increase it. After some minutes of a very equalized duel, the conducted by Jorge Dueñas seemed to have lost ideas in attack and Norway took advantage of this by setting a seven goal difference. After the break, Spanish reaction came with an outstanding Nerea Pena in attack (she made her team’s first five goals in a row) and some organization in defense. The ‘Guerreras’ had more than one chance to get closer in the scoreboard, but they didn’t took advantage of these balls and as it has been said before, Norway is Norway. While Arena Nord attendants started ‘doing the wave’ Scandinavian players saw how time was passing whereas difference between two teams not shrinking. Finally, Spain was one more time defeated by their ‘usual rival’ by 29:26 so this is how both team’s eight final matches have been defined:
December 13rd:
- 20:30, Brazil – Romania
- 20:30, Germany – Norway
- 20:45, Denmark – Sweden
- 20:45, Netherlands – Serbia
December 14th:
- 17:45, Spain – France
- 18:00, Poland – Hungary
- 20:30, Russia – South Korea
- 20:45, Montenegro – Angola
