Natural departure: the Russian women's handball team lost to Norway in the quarterfinals of the world championship

The World Handball Championship in Spain was not very easy for the radically renewed Russian women's team.

If at the stage of the first group stage she, as expected, won three victories over Cameroon, Poland and Serbia, then in the main round she faced serious difficulties.

In the match with Slovenia, it was possible to escape defeat only thanks to the throw of Yulia Makarova in the last second - 26:26.

Further, Lyudmila Bodnieva's charges defeated Montenegro (31:25) and made their way to the quarterfinals ahead of schedule.

True, to take first place and get an easier opponent in the playoffs, it was required to take over the powerful French team.

It was not possible to take revenge for the failure in the final of the Olympic Games in Tokyo - 28:33.

So the domestic team remained second and ended up with one more principled opponent - Norway.

Let the Scandinavians in recent years not dominate as they did ten years ago, but they are still included in the cohort of the strongest.

And their meetings with Russian women have long turned into handball classics.

In the Olympic Games alone, teams have crossed paths three times in the past 13 years.

In Beijing, the Scandinavians turned out to be stronger in the final, and in Rio de Janeiro, Evgeny Trefilov's charges took revenge and for the first time in history rose to the highest step of the Games podium.

Finally, in Tokyo, they also celebrated success, but only in the semifinals.

And at the previous championship of the planet, the rivals met in a match for third place, and Russia took over.

Before the reporting match, Bodnieva managed to seriously surprise the fans and experts.

She put in the starting lineup the young center "Rostov-Don" Yaroslav Frolova.

The rest of the roster turned out to be predictable.

Welterweight Elena Mikhailichenko and Antonina Skorobogatchenko, and Anastasia Illarionova, and goalkeeper Polina Kaplina remained in their places.

Thorir Hergeirsson also found something to puzzle his colleague with, unexpectedly leaving the team's top scorer in the tournament, Camilla Herrem, in reserve.

However, it quickly became clear that her absence was not critical for the Scandinavians.

The Russians started the match actively and even took the lead for a while.

But after a short swing, the Norwegians began to play at full power.

Kari Brattset-Dale and Sanna Solberg-Isaksen worked superbly on the flanks, the jerks of which each time stumped the defenders.

The Norway national team operated at much higher speeds.

The Russians did not manage to do anything with the trademark breaks of their rivals.

They could not cope with tricky combinations in the center with the conclusion on the throw of Nora Mork.

The leader himself could not be restrained either.

She converted almost all the penalties and, as a result, became the most productive in her team with nine goals.

The Norwegians quickly created a comfortable lead in the long run.

Bodnieva's wards did not let their hands go to their honor, but as they approached, they immediately created problems for themselves.

So, after two brilliant goals by Illarionova and Mikhailichenko, the gap was reduced to a minimum, but Skorobogatchenko immediately received a yellow card, and Frolova received a two-minute removal.

The rivals took advantage of their chances.

Young Russian women, it seemed, did not manage to cope with the excitement to the end.

And the experienced Ekaterina Ilyina did little.

She realized only three attempts out of eight.

I tried for everyone Skorobogatchenko, who with her long-range powerful throws gave the team hope.

However, closer to the break, the advantage of the two-time Olympic champions became intimidating and reached six points.

By the siren, it was reduced to four (15:19), but the position of the national team was still close to critical.

The beginning of the second half of the meeting gave the fans hope.

Right winger Olga Fomina came into play great, and she scored two of the most important goals, skilfully moving out of the corner.

Milana Tazhenova scored a magnificent goal in the breakaway.

And Kaplina made two very necessary saves.

The position of the Russian women no longer looked hopeless.

After an accurate throw by Tazhenova, the gap was reduced to two points.

A little later, Julia Markova returned it to this mark.

The girls calmed down and began to act much more confidently than in the first half.

The key episode occurred when Skorobogatchenko hit the crossbar from a long distance.

Had it turned out to be accurate, the gap would have been minimal.

And so the Norwegians quickly punished their rivals for this mistake.

Bodnieva's wards had no choice but to go forward, and the Scandinavians took advantage of this with pleasure.

In the breaks, Brattset-Dale, Solberg-Isaksen and Stine Oftedal took their chances.

And then Mörk converted a trademark penalty.

20:26 - and there was no more talk about any comeback.

For the Russians, it seemed, absolutely everything ceased to work out.

They could not score for more than six minutes.

41-year-old Katrina Lunde was very good at the last line, including parrying the seven-meter from Ilyina.

Trying to save the situation, Bodnieva took time out and threw left welterweight Veronica Nikitina into the battle.

Her exit helped to make a dash in three goals and reduce the gap to five, but it was too late to fight.

It was obvious that the Norwegians would not miss their own, and their experienced goalkeeper helped the partners a couple of times and did not allow the rivals to feel confident.

But Kaplina had a hard time in the end.

The Scandinavians caught the courage and repeatedly forced her to get the ball out of the net.

As a result, Solberg-Isaksen finished the meeting with seven goals, and Brattset-Dale - with six.

Among the Russians, the most productive with four goals were Mikhailichenko, Skorobogatchenko and Markova.

Unfortunately, we have to admit that the departure of the national team in the quarterfinals of the World Cup is absolutely logical.

The strongly changed team with a new coach at the head was unable to fight on equal terms with such rivals as France and Norway.

However, it is difficult to criticize handball players for this.

At least they, like Bodnieva, in Spain received invaluable experience of participating in major tournaments.

Now it remains to wait for Anna Vyakhireva and Daria Dmitrieva to return to service.