Norway’s Camilla Herrem is known for her brilliant counter-attacking ability down the left wing, so it comes as no surprise that she enjoyed the manner of their semi-final win over Denmark on Thursday evening.
“I’m just so grateful to be able to do this. I knew our tactics against Denmark were good, disturbing their passes and making them insecure in attack, we dealt with their 7vs6 attack well and, of course, we have the best goalkeepers in the world.
“It was a real team win, everyone did their thing and I couldn’t be more proud of the team, but the defence was the best, incredible,” said Herrem, who was spot on about the whole team aspect of the win, not only in defence but with 11 different goalscorers in the 25:21 success.
Executing the plan
Norway have been working away diligently to offer a new approach both in attack and defence for these games. A risky move before such a huge event but it has paid off with their development throughout the past two weeks.
“It’s the best. I love it when we have a good plan and you manage to do it on the court. You can talk as much as you want beforehand, but you have to do it. We stressed them playing the good defence we have done for the last couple weeks.”
A beautiful setting
Alongside Katrine Lunde, Herrem is one of two players who have experienced stepping atop that Olympic podium, doing so in 2012. The 37-year-old admits the expectation of Tokyo got the better of them three years ago but that it’s not the case here.
“I have the feeling that in Tokyo, there was a pressure on our shoulders to win, we had to win and it was so rough for everyone when we didn’t. But now, we’re relaxing and playing with our shoulders down.
“We were not thinking ahead, just taking it one game at a time, but now we can finally look forward to a final against France in this incredible arena – it’s the most beautiful arena I’ve ever played. I’m just so excited to play that game.”