After Angola and Russia qualified for the quarter-finals before, Norway and Spain booked the ticket to the next stage of the World Championship in Brazil. As the Norwegians had no problems with the Netherlands, Spain had to fight a tough battle with Montenegro to proceed. The European Champion will face the winner of the match Romania vs. Croatia in the quarter-finals, Spain will compete with the winner of Monday’s (12 December) game Brazil vs. Ivory Coast on Wednesday 14 December. Aside the eight-finals France vs. Sweden and Denmark vs. Japan will be played on Monday.

 

Norway – Netherlands 34:22 (15:11)

In the second eight final in Santos, Norway won clearly against Netherlands. After 60 minutes the Scandinavians beat the Dutch 34:22 and will proceed now to the quarterfinal to compete with the winner of the match between Romania vs. Croatia. Even though the final result was clearly in favour of Norway, the match started quiet surprising, when the Dutch ladies were leading 7:5 after 15 minutes. Favorite Norway started the games with a lot of mistakes and didn’t work very well in defence. But then the Scandinavians scored four times in a row and turned the match completely within six minutes. Even though the Norwegians turned the game suddenly, Netherland stayed calm and focused and did their best to strike back – with success. Three goals in a row brought them up to a 10:9 lead in the 23rd minute. But a further series of five goals in a row made the result clear for Norway: 14:10 after 29 minutes and 15:11 after the end of the first half. The better team was on the way to victory. In the second half the Netherlands kept the game open for another eight minutes (15:18), but then the Norwegian team to dominate the game. It was 20:15 after 40 minutes and 24:17 after 45 minutes. Even though the match was almost decided, the Norwegian girls were still scoring. Again they scored five goals in a row between the 49th and 54th minute and increased from 25:19 to 30:19. The rest was a formality. Player of the match and best scorer was Heidi Løke with eight goals in eight attempts. After the match, Henk Groener, the Headcoach of the Netherlands, said: „For 40 minutes things went good. But then we got physical problems, so that we could not be as good in defence as in the first half. We have made progress in the past, but still we´re not strong enough.” Thorir Hergeirsson was very satisfied after the match. „Our competitor has a very young and talented team. It will be interesting to see how they will develop. I knew they will follow us for 30 or 40 minutes. But if you work hard for the complete 60 minutes you will get payed in the end. I think it was a very good performance of my team.”

 

Montenegro – Spain 19:23 (9:11)

Sensational 29 saves of brilliant goalkeeper Silvia Navarro and six goals of outstanding Marta Mangue paved the Spanish way to the quarter-finals. In this encounter full of fight, Montenegro was too inefficient in attack to proceed to the next stage.  Right after the final whistle, all Spanish players jumped at their goalkeeper, knowing that it was her, who saved their victory.

The first half was a complete roller coaster, typical for women’s handball. After only four minutes and a Spanish 3:0 lead, Montenegro coach Dragan Adzic took an early time-out, which didn’t help to change anything. As his team nearly showed no efficiency in attack, the Iberians extended the gap minute by minute. Key factor for this run was goalkeeper Silvia Navarro, who saved 13 shots only in the first half. While Montenegro was completely out of sorts, the Spanish express had reached highest speed. At the score of 10:4 in minute 21, Montenegro was behind, but rose like Phoenix. Led by youngster Marina Knezevic the Balkan team improved, whilst Spain lost their rhythm especially in attack. It took only eight minutes (29th minute), until Montenegro reached the score of 9:10 in this real tough and rough battle in Barueri.

At the start of the second half, Navarro was in the focus again. Saving five straight shots, her team gained confidence again and extended their margin to five goals at 14:9 in minute 35. Montenegro – including top star Bojana Popovic, who had a real black day – started on the same weak level as in the first half, it took six minutes to score their first goal, which was a penalty-shot.

And they could not increase, as the Spanish defence still stood like a wall – after 42 minutes Adzic took the green card again, as his team was below 12:17 and did not find the right means to score. Only thanks to their aggressive defence the Balkan team was still in the race. And this race turned to be the same roller coaster as in the first half: The Spanish attackers did not score anymore, so Montenegro had enough chances to reduce the gap. But either they caused technical mistakes or they failed against World class Navarro, saving in total 29 shots. So the distance remained at mostly four goals, reaching the final stage. After an intermediate five goal margin, Montenegro (top scorer Marija Jovanovic/5 goals) reduced to 19:22 – but they had only three minutes to play. Too less to turn the game.

 

Statements after the match:

Dragan Adzic, coach Montenegro: We were too scared to win as we were too weak in the realization of our shots.

 

Jorge Duenas, coach Spain: We had a good start, and thanks to our defence and our goalkeeper we remained in lead all the time. Now we celebrate our victory – and from tomorrow on we concentrate on the quarter-final. Maybe we meet Brazil. But losing a test match before the tournament means nothing, as now it’s competition time.

 

Suzana Lazovic, player Montenegro: We had a lousy start, but we managed to come back until the break. Whilst our defence stood well, we were too weak in attack to win. Congratulation to the great Spanish goalkeeper!

 

Silvia Navarro, Spanish goalkeeper:  Our coach really motivated us before this important game, and this gave us the confidence. Montenegro is a strong team, but we kept our concentration high.