Easy win for Norway, Sweden miss revenge

The EHF EURO Cup 2020 got started today in the new competition which features the three organisers of the Men´s EHF EURO 2020, Austria, Norway and Sweden, as well as reigning champions Spain.

With all four nations automatically qualified for the final tournament, they face each other home and away in parallel to the EHF EURO 2020 Qualification matches and Norway were the big winners in the opening round, defeating Austria 43:31 at home, while Sweden missed a chance for revenge losing to Spain, following their 29:23 defeat to them in the final of the EHF EURO 2018 in Croatia back in January.

Norway vs Austria 43:31 (20:13)

With an impressive demonstration of inventive attacking handball, Norway booked a clear win in the opening match of the EHF EURO CUP in front of 3,075 spectators in Stjørdal by Bergen – at one point leading by 14 goals before eventually taking a 43:31 victory.

Torbjørn Bergerud had a brilliant start in the Norwegian goal, while Sander Sagosen celebrated his own party in the home team’s attack as the 23-year-old left back scored Norway’s first three goals and six of their first 10.

Norway went goal-crazy in the first EHF EURO Cup clash with Austria, winning 43:31 and this rocket from @SanderSagosen was the best of them!@NORhandball #dreamwinremember #ehfeuro2020 pic.twitter.com/LNfGVEf9pA

— EHF EURO (@EHFEURO) October 24, 2018

It did not take the home team long to get up 4:1, and during the rest of the first half, they steadily increased their lead to seven goals as the match clearly demonstrated the depth and versatility of the Norwegian squad, with coach Christian Berge making use of almost his entire bench.

At the same time, Bergerud continued to do well in goal, while Sagosen reached 12 goals before taking the rest of the evening off.

Sweden vs Spain 28:29 (12:15)

Spain led all the way in this encounter, but still, the ruling European champions had to worry about their win all the way to the end as they managed to deny Sweden the revenge for the 29:23 defeat in the final of the EHF EURO 2018 in Croatia back in January.

Andreas Palicka pulls off one of the best saves you'll see for a long time. Awesome reflexes from the @hlandslaget keeper! #ehfeuro2020#dreamwinremember pic.twitter.com/el6iFE6qEO

— EHF EURO (@EHFEURO) October 24, 2018

It took more than five minutes before Jim Gottfridsson scored Sweden’s first goal of the match, reducing the early deficit to 2:1, but this did not change the impression of a start dominated by Spain.

Thanks to a stellar performance by Rodrigo Corrales in goal, Spain got ahead 4:1 and increased their lead to four goals at 8:4 later on in the opening period but Sweden managed to come back, and with five-and-a-half minutes left of the first half, Simon Jeppsson equalised to make it 10:10.

But before the half-time buzzer, the visitors ran off to a three-goal lead again. The Swedes knew they had to work hard as the second half started and they found that their goals came more easily than in the first, but still, Spain were six up, before the home team set about an impressive finish.

With less than a minute left, Hampus Wanne reduced the distance to just one goal at 29:28, but the Spaniards managed to ride the storm as the home team fell just short.