NANCY (Dagbladet): Norway is out of the handball-european CHAMPIONSHIP after Netherlands won against Germany late in the evening.
It means that the Netherlands and Romania goes to the semi-finals, and Norway will play about 5.-6.-place against Sweden on Friday afternoon.
Coach Thorir Hergeirsson met Dagbladet and the Norwegian press outside the Norwegian spillerhotellet right after the downturn was a fact.
I have been quite realistic. I did not know about the outcome here, but I was pretty sure it would go like that, ” said Hergeirsson about the Germany match.
EM-dream crushed for Norway – is not about margins,
Coach was evident that Norway could not blame on anyone other than themselves, and that Germany in particular-the loss earlier in the european CHAMPIONSHIP was a big difference.
– We lost this in Germany, for example-the fight. This is where the dream bust, really. We can’t blame Hungary for not they win by three goals, ” said Hergeirsson, and specified:
We had endured Romania match if we had won against Germany.
With the Hungarian tremålsseier over Romania, Norway had been ready for the semi-finals. Unfortunately for Norway, they won 31-29 – with one goal too little.
– It is not margins. It was not good enough to reach a semi. I will not use the margins as a word on it. We were too far away when we got to the hovedrunden, says Hergeirsson.
Rages after shock-combat: – This is not handball! In the offensive position
Norway has played eight consecutive european CHAMPIONSHIP finals – all since 2002.
For the Norwegian håndballjenter has EM been a gold mine, with seven gold, three silver and one bronze in total since its inception in 1994.
I will say that it is very good. An extremely great achievement, ” said Thorir, and he added that he is proud to have helped contribute to the results.
The worst EM-bet came back in the year 2000. When Norway was number six – and the bunnoteringen want the national team to avoid match about two days.
– It’s all about having a pride and honor when you represent Norway. We want to get the highest possible. We will see the lowest possible number, to put it that way. So it might be important when you get further out in the race against the OLYMPIC games in Tokyo, says the national coach.
This is the first time Norway is the reigning european CHAMPIONSHIP, world CHAMPIONSHIP or OLYMPIC champion.
– Then we will get in attack mode. Then it is we who can turn from the bottom, so the others know what it is like to be the favorite, quit Thorir.
These athletes are nominated to the People’s idrettspris 2018