Jonas Wille ended his first IHF Men’s World Championship match as Norway coach with a double-digit victory against the legendary Macedonian Kiril Lazarov, now coach of the North Macedonia team.

A slow start to the match gave way to an eventual 66 goals as the Norwegians, who took silver at the 2017 and 2019 IHF Men’s World Championships, were able to ease into Poland/Sweden 2023.

"My coaches told me that we had 17 technical mistakes," said Lazarov. "If we make 17 mistakes in our attack, that means 17 counter-attacks for the other team. That was the reason we lost by more than 10 goals."

Group F

Norway vs North Macedonia 39:27 (18:11)

Passionate, colourful and loud Macedonian support greeted Lazarov and his squad in southern Poland, but it was not enough against a focused, organised and lethal Norwegian side.

North Macedonia did not help themselves, though. They missed several chances early on, so they did not open their account until after the fifth minute when Filip Kuzmanovski made it 1:2.

Just before the 15-minute mark and with the Norwegians leading by three goals (8:5), Lazarov took his first time out. With just one save from captain Nikola Mitrevski in that period, it was clear that their defence was not operating at their top level.

This was the refresh and reset Mitrevski and his side needed as they went on a 4:1 run to draw even. Kuzmanovski’s fast-break equaliser led to a cacophony of noise from his supporters as teammate Filip Taleski, while defending the next Norwegian attack, encouraged the fans to raise the roof even higher.

But as soon as that turning point came, the tide turned against the Macedonians. In that very Norwegian attack, Martin Serafimov was given a two-minute suspension for his over-zealous defending and trudging back to the bench.

Two quick goals settled Norway (11:9) as the Macedonians paid for taking off Mitrevski and putting on the extra-court player.

A 5-1 and 4-2 defence could not prevent Sagosen and his team from getting through, and as Torbjørn Bergerud made a half-time buzzer save, the THW Kiel left back Sagosen cheered and hugged his goalkeeper, knowing a seven-goal lead at the break would be enough.

And it was. With 15 minutes remaining, Norway were ahead by 10 (26:16), and they cruised through to two points in the final minutes.

"It was an important match for me personally, because if we had lost this match, it would have been a big pressure on me and on the team," said Wille to ihf.info after the match.

"But at the same time, I feel quite confident because we have such good players, so we feel confident and believe in the team. We are really satisfied. We played well in all phases. We struggled a bit with their seven against six attacking play, but at the end we got control over that too."

Norway face Argentina next, with North Macedonia taking on the Netherlands. Both matches will be played on Sunday (15 January).

hummel Player of the Match: Sander Sagosen (Norway)