Both teams brought changed sides compared to recent tournaments, with several stars retiring or absent for other reasons. Norway’s squad eventually prevailed, but have plenty of room for improvement if they want to take their tenth trophy as a farewell gift four outgoing coach Thorir Hergeirsson.
The top scorer was Norway’s super star Henny Reistad, who also was awarded Player of the Match, presented by Grundfos.
GROUP E
Norway vs Slovenia 33:26 (16:11)
- Norway’s start was a bit shaky, but after the 6:6, the defending champions started their goal machine, netting 80 per cent of all attacks before the break
- IHF World Player of the Year Henny Reistad was on fire before the break, scoring five of her nine goals in the first half, helping her team to carry a comfortable five-goals advance to the dressing rooms
- in the second half, the defending champions started a constant rotation, decelerated the speed and allowed Slovenia to remain on an almost equal level; the closest gap was three goals at 18:15
- Slovenia’s best player was – mainly in the second half – goalkeeper Maja Vojnovic with a total of eight saves; her team’s best scorers were Tjaša Stanko (seven goals) and Ana Abina (five goals)
- unusually, the highly experienced Norwegian goalkeeper duo of Katrine Lunde and Silje Solberg- Østhassel only combined for six saves
Experience the key for Norway
Although experienced stars such as Stine Oftedal (retired), Nora Mørk and Veronica Kristiansen (both pregnant) are not part of Norway’s squad this time, they are still the most experienced side in group E – mainly thanks to two players: six-time EHF EURO winner Katrine Lunde (44 years old) and left wing Camilla Herrem (38).
Taking in account all matches before the start of the EHF EURO 2024, Lunde (365) and Herrem (323) combined for 688 international matches, while the 18 players of the Slovenian squad in total had played 589 international matches. That lack of experience showed on Thursday, despite Norway’s lacklustre performance.
It’s (the) opening game, everyone is excited. We knew that we were favourite in this game. We didn’t know much about the Slovenian team, they had not played so much together this team, but we know some of the players, so we used maybe the first 15 minutes to learn a bit more about them.
I am very satisfied. Everything we wanted, we achieved tonight, for some players to score against Norway for the first time, to defend against Norway, to try out this roster and to prepare for our two key matches against Slovakia and against Austria. We stayed healthy, we stayed right, with good confidence and I believe this team can grow at the European championships.
