For the second time in three days, the Danish handball women clashed with Norway as part of the preparations for the Olympics in Paris, and for the second time in three days it was a Danish defeat in the meeting with the rival.
In the last test match before the Games in the French capital, Denmark did not at all look like a team that was ready for the Olympics. It resulted in a 24-35 defeat to Norway, who were even without the team’s biggest star, Henny Reistad.
Where Tuesday’s match in Norway was characterized by poor attacking play, Thursday’s match in Hillerød featured a lot of poor defensive play, especially from the Danish side. Norway’s Stine Oftedal did whatever suited her throughout the match, and the Danish defender never managed to stick the playmaker.
Denmark has 10 days to find a formula that can stop Oftedal and the Norwegian offensive. The two teams are in a group together at the Olympics and will meet in the second group match on July 28. Denmark opens against Slovenia three days earlier.
In the first match in Norway on Tuesday, Denmark had difficulty scoring goals, but that was changed from the start of the match in the meeting on Thursday in Hillerød. Denmark was led by a well-played Anne-Mette Hansen and initially played with a higher tempo and more variety, but on the other hand it was crazy at the other end.
Norway found it just as easy to score. Therefore, the two teams were followed until 8-8. From here, the technical Danish errors came creeping in, and this punished the Norwegian counter machine several times promptly. Four Norwegian scores in a row made national coach Jesper Jensen call for a gathering of the Danish troops, which put an end to the mistakes. However, that did not change the fact that Denmark did not get a hold of anything defensively, where there was not much help between the posts either.
Norway led by three scores at the break, and that lead only got bigger from the start of the second half. Eight minutes of the second half had to pass before Denmark got on the scoreboard again, and meanwhile Norway continued to score at will. Lagging Danish attacking play and Norwegian efficiency was the picture of the match in the second half, where the Norwegian lead only got bigger and bigger.
ritzau
Source: politiken.dk
