Norway win Scandinavian Open

A 23:21 win against Sweden on Thursday (7 June) was enough for Norway to secure the first place in the Scandinavian Open at Larvik Arena ahead of Sweden, Poland and Romania.

The Norwegians opened the tournament, which all four teams used to prepare for the upcoming EHF EURO 2014 qualification rounds, by losing 29:27 against Romania, while Sweden defeated Poland, also 29:27, on Tuesday.

The following evening, the hosts avenged the opening defeat by beating Poland 24:23, after Sweden had turned 15:17 deficit at half-time against Romania into a clear 35:29 win.

As Poland opened the last match day (Thursday, 7 June) by winning 24:22 against Romania, Norway and Sweden were set for a 'duel of neighbours' about the first place.

After Norway had the better start and taken a 5:3 lead, Sweden got back into the game and were leading 13:10 at half time.

In the second half it did not take the home team long to equalise and get ahead by two goals ahead. And after having overcome a two-minute penalty at 21:21 shortly before the end, Norway managed to score the last two goals in the match.

"Today we played well in the defence for the entire 60 minutes. Ole Erevik was great in goal, and in the second half we also played well in the attack.

We still have some things to work with in our fast break phase, but all in all it was a good match for us," Norway´s Swedish national coach Robert Hedin told the Norwegian handball federation´s website after the win.

Quite naturally, Ola Lindgren, who is in charge of Sweden together with Staffan Olsson, was not all that pleased.

“It was obvious that the team is missing some training sessions together. In the second half our attacking play became too hectic.

We shot too soon and lost patience. However, the purpose of this tournament was to see as many players as possible, and we stuck to that plan," Lindgren told the website of the Swedish handball federation.