Norway win Women's EHF EURO 2022 final to claim Paris 2024 berth

Norway retained their European women's handball title on Sunday (20 November), coming from behind to beat Denmark 27-25 in a thrilling final in Ljubljana.

Victory in the Slovenian capital saw last year's Tokyo 2020 bronze medallists take the one available spot from EHF EURO 2022 for Paris 2024, where they will do battle with hosts and current Olympic champions France.

Player of the match Nora Mørk scored eight times as the Norwegians claimed their ninth title in the last 13 tournaments.

Goalkeepers engineer Norway comeback

Denmark, seeking a first European title since their third triumph back in 2002, subdued the Norwegians early on with some smothering defence backed up by goalkeeper Sandra Toft.

At the other end, rIght back Louise Vinter Burgaard was in superb form as the Danes went into an 9-4 lead.

Toft's opposite number Silje Solberg was also excelling with Mørk scoring seven from seven attempts in the first half, but they could not stop Denmark taking a 15-12 advantage into the break.

After the restart, Norway started to close the gap with 42-year-old Katrine Lunde picking up where Solberg left off in goal.

Midway through the half, Denmark suddenly lost the scoring knack and went almost eight minutes without finding the net.

That enabled Norway to go in front for the first time with Denmark managing to peg them back.

But Toft could not keep out Henny Reistad's long-range blast with just over two minutes remaining which gave Norway a 26-24 lead they would not relinquish as Lunde finished with four saves from 10 shots.

The Danes had won Wednesday's main round clash between the two sides although both teams had already qualified for the semi-finals.

In the end, they had to settle for silver which was their best showing since 2004 when they also went down in the final to Norway.

Reistad's late decisive contribution proved apt as she collected the tournament MVP award with Mørk's 50 goals seeing her take the top scorer prize.

Montenegro edge past France for bronze

An inspired goalkeeping performance from Marta Batinovic helped Montenegro to a 27-25 extra-time victory over France in the third-place playoff.

Grace Zaadi's 7m shot on the buzzer made it 22-22, but Montenegro got the better of the Olympic champions to send star right wing Jovanka Radicevic into international retirement with a bronze medal.