EHF EURO

Norway vs. Netherlands clashes

Márk Hegedüs

24 October 2011, 10:21

Norway vs. Netherlands clashes

Last week, during the ongoing qualification tournament for the EHF EURO 2012, EURO hosts Netherlands and title defender Norway played a series of preparation games in Rotterdam´s Topsportcentrum.

The series of test matches came in the place of the annual Holland Handbal Toernooi, which, in the absence of a fourth participant, had to be cancelled.

Therefore, host Netherlands invited the National Team of Tunisia from the African continent for several match-ups against the two nations. In their first clash, the Netherlands turned the match, after being down at half-time, into a four-goal victory, with Joyce Hilster and Laura van der Heijden being the top scorers with six goals each.

Head coach Henk Groener was especially pleased with the offensive performance of his side: "The girls showed that their rapid attacks can be very dangerous."

In their next match-up, the Netherlands clearly outclassed their African opponents by 11 goals, with young Lois Abbingh becoming the top scorer with six. Coach Groener was therefore highly satisfied: "The players have learned from the mistakes that they made in the first encounter, and their coverage was much better."

The two matches against Tunisia were followed by two games against Norway, the Olympic and European champions.

In their direct duels, firstly, the Netherlands clearly lost against head coach Thorir Hergeirsson´s team, whilst on Sunday, their clash ended as a draw.

In the first match the key factor for the away victory was the top performance of goalkeeper Katrine Lunde Haraldsen in the goal of Norway, who saved with over 50% efficiency. Assistant coach Mia Hermansson-Högdahl analyzed her side´s performance: "We were more effective in the second half, with less technical faults and we built some nice attacks. In our defence, Marit Malm Frafjord and Karoline Næss both stood well, so, in all, it was a great team effort."

Hergeirsson praised Stine Bredal Oftedal´s performance: "With her on the field we have a much faster game plan. She has good eyes and finds her team mates well in the holes in the opponent´s wall."

Despite the defeat, the host was pleased as well, as coach Groener saw a great improvement to the games against Tunisia: "We are going to play better and better every game, we have great potential." Also, Pearl van der Wissel showed great optimism: "For 45 minutes we were equal to Norway. Too bad that in the last quarter our concentration decreased, and it was punished quickly by the opponent. If we have a complete team again and remain focused for 60 minutes, we can beat Norway."

In the second match, the Norwegian coach relied on his youngsters, with Mari Molid, Stine Bredal Oftedal, Amanda Kurtovic and Karoline Næss playing a big part. The Dutch host maintained the lead for most of the game and caused big trouble for the Norwegian back-court with an aggressive defense for their shooters.

The Netherlands showed more speed and variety in their attacking game. Youngster Lois Abbingh hit the net 9 times to become the top scorer of the duel, whilst goalkeeper Marieke van der Wal also had a solid game.

Results:

Netherlands - Tunisia 34:30 (15:17)
Netherlands - Tunisia 33:22 (17:10)
Norway - Tunisia 33:24 (12:13)
Netherlands - Norway 21:28 (10:10)
Netherlands - Norway 31:31 (18:18)