Spain are back in the IHF Men’s World Championship semi-finals after a six-year hiatus, after a dominating 31:26 win against Norway.

Norwegian top goal scorer Sander Sagosen suffered an injury early in the first half and only returned for two attacks in the second part, as Norway failed to get their attack going while missing their best player.

Unbeaten Spain will face Denmark in the semi-finals on Friday in Cairo, while Norway fail to return to the semi-finals after two consecutive silver medals.

QUARTER-FINALS
Spain vs Norway 31:26 (21:15)

When Spain and Norway were on the court for their warm-ups, drama was unfolding 50 kilometres away in the Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex as all eyes were on the clash between Denmark and Egypt.

Eventually, Denmark sealed one of the most exciting wins in World Championship history against the hosts, but the good news for Spain and Norway is that the game was physically and mentally draining for their potential opponent in the semi-finals come Friday.

And if Denmark managed to get out of an impossible situation, why would Norway not stop a 17-game winless streak against Spain, that dated back to 1997?

On paper, that was doable. On the court, however, the situation was different. Norway had something to cheer for after shot stopper Torbjorn Bergerud saved three shots in the first three minutes.

But in the next 17 minutes, Bergerud only saved one more shot, as Spain started gaining more and more momentum, with their attack firing on all cylinders. 

It was once again a superb team effort, with no player scoring more than four goals. But their wings combined for six goals, their line player, Ruben Marchan, scored four times, while Alex Dujshebaev was both a distracting presence in defence, stealing the ball twice, while also adding four goals in attack.

Yet everything unfolded for Norway when Sander Sagosen, their top goal scorer in the tournament, went out with an injury after 17 minutes. Without him, Norway struggled, as Spain jumped to a comfortable 21:15 lead at the break.

It might have been coach Christian Berge’s pep talk or players playing for Sagosen as Norway looked like another team in the second part.

An amped up effort in defence, where they only conceded twice in the first ten minutes, lifted Norway’s spirits, but the ever-excellent Rodrigo Coralles continued his excellent outing. Jordi Ribera’s choices to rotate the goalkeepers in entire games might be an out-of-the-box choice, but it has paid dividends at Egypt 2021.

The Norwegians managed to cut the gap to three goals, 23:26, with 12 minutes, as Sagosen made a brief cameo, but left frustrated, with the injury clearly hampering his efforts.

But with hummel Player of the Match stopping everything – 19 saves for a 44 percent efficiency – Spain could not lose. As Alex Dujshebaev, the game’s top scorer, with eight goals, mixed powerful shots from nine metres with spin shots from just in front of the arc it was game over for a Norwegian side that did not find their rhythm to begin with at Egypt 2021.

The 31:26 win puts Spain back between the top four teams in the world for the first time since Qatar 2015, where they will face Denmark for a place in the final on Friday.

Norway will have to go back to the drawing board as this is their worst finish in the tournament since 2011, when they were ninth.

hummel Player of the Match: Rodrigo Coralles Rodal, Spain

PHOTO: Egypt 2021