The Norwegian Handball guys cleaned up in the group stage and the main round, but had to lose after four extra rounds against Spain in the semi-finals. In the first placement match (no. 5-8), our men won over Hungary, while in the last one (no. 5-6), it was Germany who drew the longest straw and secured fifth place. The handball guys finished sixth as in the previous WC.

In the semi-finals, Denmark won over Spain, while France took victory over the home nation Sweden. And in the bronze final, the Swedes had to face Spain in front of more than 20,000 spectators in the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm. And that after the home team played a terrific first half and led 22-18 at the break. But the Spaniards have been in finals before and don’t stress much. In the second half, they hit back hard with a regrouped defense and eventually won the bronze medals with the numbers 39-36.

In the final, there were still over 23,000 spectators in place, and most of them cheered for Denmark. It was a fast-paced match which was even in the first half, at half-time it was 15-16 (France was the home team). But towards the end of the match, the Danish legs were freshest and they secured a five-goal victory 34-29 in the end. This allowed Niklas Landin to lift the WC trophy for the third time in a row – no nation has achieved this before.

All Star Team

No Norwegian players got a place on the championship’s All Star Team, which was like this:

Goalkeeper: Andreas Wolff (Germany)

Right winger: Niclas Ekberg (Sweden)

Right back: Alex Dujshebaev (Spain)

Center back: Nedim Remili (France)

Left back: Simon Bogetoft Pytlick (Denmark)

Left winger: Ángel Fernández Pérez (Spain)

Lineman: Ludovic Fabregas (France)

Best young player: Juri Knorr (Germany)

Most Valuable Player: Mathias Gidsel (Denmark)

The next championship is the EC in Germany in 2024, and the next WC will be played in January 2025 in Norway, Denmark and Croatia.

Read more about Handball guys and WC in Sweden and Poland (ihf.info)

The order in the WC 2023:

1 DEN – Denmark
2 FROM – France
3.ESP – Spain
4 SWE – Sweden
5 GER – Germany
6 NOR – Norway
7 EGY – Egypt
8 FEMALE – Hungary
9 CRO – Croatia
10 SLO – Slovenia
11 SRB – Serbia
12 ISL – Island
13 POR – Portugal
14 DOWN – Netherlands
15 POL – Poland
16 BRN – Bahrain
17 BRA – Brazil
18 MNE – Montenegro
19 ARG – Argentina
20 United States – United States
21 BEL – Belgium
22 QAT – Qatar
23 CPV – Cape Verde
24 IRI – Iran
25 TUN – Tunisia
26 CHI – Chile
27 MKD – North Macedonia
28 KOR – South Korea
29 KSA – Saudi Arabia
30 MAR – Morocco
31 ALG – Algeria
32 URU – Uruguay

Top scorer was Mathias Gidsel with 60 goals in nine games ahead of Erwin Feuchtmann from Chile with 54 goals in seven games. Number three was German Juri Knorr with 53 goals in nine games.

In shared 14th place we find Sebastian Barthold and Sander Sagosen, who both scored 39 goals for Norway.

See the full overview