Denmark’s Kristina Jørgensen could smile on reflection of Thursday’s narrow win over Germany. The Danes looked to have the victory in the bag but a lacklustre finish allowed Germany to come back and almost snatch a point, if not for a save by Sandra Toft.
“It was a nerve-wracking end to the game but I’m really happy Sandra made that last save. She performs when we need her, she’s always there and I’m proud of her,” says Jørgensen, who had a positive outlook on the contest and her side’s performance.
Emerging from the chaos
“It was a fun game, we were creating good chances for ourselves but started to miss them and Germany just kept on fighting and playing good handball.
“It was always a little chaotic and with Germany’s high defence, we needed to get our movement off the ball right, which we managed well but we need to improve our finishing because we could have closed out this game much earlier.”
That success made it three wins from four for the Danes, who are competing in their first Olympics since 2012, and their last two wins have seen them come from behind to take control in crunchtime – pointing towards the team’s mental strength.
“We’re managing to get the win when we’re in tight games, which gives us a lot of confidence. In both games we also had great goalkeeper performances, it’s so nice to have Althea and Sandra on our team and help us claim those points.”
Evolve all the time
Jørgensen’s emergence as a leader for the team coincides with coach Jesper Jensen’s development of the squad, which has seen the players become more expressive in their play and display their personalities.
Heading into the final day of preliminary round matches, Denmark are through to the quarter-finals but a third place finish looks likely, unless Norway or Sweden drop points.
Despite not having their final placement in their own hands, the 26-year-old states that it’s “full focus on us, we want to be better in every game and evolve all the time.”
The evolution continues with tonight’s clash against South Korea at 21:00 CEST and then onto Lille for their biggest tests to date.