"We’re incredibly fired up," said rising star Miro Schluroff before the match. "We want to grab the next two points in this main round group and keep paving the way to the semi-finals." And Gislason told ARD: "We have to stick to our game plan."
If there had been anyone other than Andreas Wolff in their opposition's goal tonight, Norway would probably have won that game.
Norway had more shots on goal, and the two sides were pretty level when it came to turnovers and technical faults.
As it is, Jonas Wille's outfit was forced to settle for a two-goal defeat against Germany, who could count their blessings with Andreas Wolff between the posts.
He ended the game with 22 saves from 50 shots (44 per cent). Normally, Torbjorn Bergerud's 10 saves (31 per cent) would seem very good, but today Andreas Wolff was on another planet and was named the Player of the Match.
Wolff kept his team in the game with spectacular saves, even as they struggled offensively for long stretches. Midway through the second half, the Germans reduced their high error rate in attack and, led by Marko Grgic, turned the match in their favor. Grgic became the leading goal scorer in front of 10,117 spectators at the Jyske Bank Boxen, netting all seven of his goals after the break.
If Germany can beat world and Olympic champions Denmark on Monday, they will secure a spot in the medal round even before the second phase of the tournament ends. Their final opponent on Wednesday will be defending champions France.
Germany, which had already beaten Spain (34-32) and Portugal (32-30), now leads Main Round Group I after two matchdays with six points. Trailing them are France and Denmark (both with four points), Norway and Portugal each have two points, and Spain is without a point.