Norway are still a work in progress at the EHF EURO, looking fragile at times, despite their 35:29 win against Lithuania, in the last game of the group in the Steel Arena in Košice.
While Lithuania are out and finished on the last place in the group, without scoring a point, Norway go through to the main round in Bratislava, but will start group II without a point, after their loss against Russia.
GROUP F
Lithuania vs Norway 29:35 (16:16)
- as soon as Lithuania looked to be done and dusted, they deployed a 6:2 run fueled by backs Aidenas Malasinskas and Karolis Antanavicius, who scored four times, to take a surprising lead, 13:11
- the Baltic team failed to open a three-goal gap twice, while Malasinskas also missed a penalty shot late in the first half, with Norway tying the score, 16:16, with one second to go before the break
- backs Sander Sagosen and Harald Reinkind carried the load for Norway in the first half, combining for 11 of the Scandinavian’s side 16 goals, or 68.5 per cent of their goals
- Lithuania’s attacking efficiency dipped from 67 per cent in the first half to only 58 per cent at the end of the game, as they failed to keep the rhythm in the last 30 minutes
- Lithuania conceded the second largest number of goals in a match at the EHF EURO, only one goal shy of the record against the Czech Republic, 36, at Italy 1998
Norway finally get a good game from Sagosen
Norway looked fragile at times, especially in defence, as they could hardly stop Lithuania in the first half, when they conceded 16 goals. The effort was amped up in the second half and they finally got a good effort from Sander Sagosen in attack, with the influential centre back scoring seven times and being named the Grundfos Player of the Match.
Unfortunately for Lithuania, who mounted an impressive comeback in their first game against Russia and had good stints during the losses against Slovakia and Norway, this was their final game at the EHF EURO 2022. They joined North Macedonia, Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina as the sides who did not win a game, but the building blocks are there for the next editions.
