After losing their opener by 27:28 against Egypt, the Norwegian boys clutched at their last straw at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing - but were highly close to fail again. By beating Brazil 33:31 after an intense endgame in their second match on Thursday (21 August) they booked their ticket to the semi-final regardless the result of the final encounter of group A on Friday - the intercontinental duel Egypt vs. Brazil.

If Egypt ties, wins or lose by only one goal, Brazil is out of the semi-final race, if Brazil win by a two or more goals margin the Northern Africans compete for the positions 5/6 only.  

Boys’ tournament:

Group A: Brazil - Norway 31:33 (15:19)

1:0 and 2:1 - those were the only times Brazil were in lead in the first game of today’s boys’ competition - but they were highly close to eliminate the Norwegians. Despite outstanding 18 saves of their goalkeeper Marcos Colodeti the Pan-American champions missed the great opportunity of an early arrival in the semi-finals against a strongly fighting Norwegian team, which gave a six goal advance in minute 45 from their hands.

Having in mind that another defeat would end their semi-final dream, the Scandinavians started with full power and shocked their competitors by an early 8:3 lead in minute nine.  Though they improved, Brazil could in this period not manage to reduce the gap to less than four goals at the break. Led by Jörgen Jansrud and Lasse Larsen Thorsbye Norway again had the better start, extending the gap to 26:19 in minute 37 - a distance they kept until the 29:23.

Who thought that Brazil would surrender was completely wrong: The South Americans grabbed their chances, as the Scandinavians got tired in their second match within 24 hours, and nine minutes before the end everything was open again, when the distance had melted to 28:30. When the top scorer of the match, Patrick Andre Toniazzo Lemos stroke for his tenth goal at 31:32, at least a point was in reach for Brazil. But finally Magnus Rod made his team jump for joy, when deciding the game in the dying minute by netting in for the final result of 33:31.