Latvia Overcomes Norway after Penalty Shootout – 08.12.2018

Arena Sparta witnessed a very tight game with lots of tension, pace and emotion. Both teams were pulling for the lead, with the Norwegians always being one step ahead. But the Latvians always managed to equalize, which brought the match to a penalty shootout. There, the Baltic team was happier – Artis Raitums and Klavs Jansons scored, which means Latvia will fight for the 5th place.

The Scandinavian team had a quick start into the game. With less than three minutes played, Ole Martin Jansson hit the crossbar, but the ball bounced down and crossed the goal line. Team Latvia then started conquering the Norwegian goal, which resulted in an equalizer. With 6:30 on the clock, Janis Rajeckis made it 1-1. But Norway was ahead after the first 20 minutes, thanks to Christoffer Nilsson’s goal.

The 2nd period was evenly balanced. Both teams tried to focus on defense, which meant that the 575 loud spectators at Arena Sparta saw only two goals. First, Klavs Jansons leveled the score, but in the 33rd minute, Henrik Fredriksen put Norway ahead again. The match was very tense even at that moment and nobody knew that the last period would offer such a nerve-racking course of the game.

As mentioned above, the last period was very dramatic. The fans watched it almost motionless. The teams offered them a scoring flurry – five goals in less than ten minutes. The Nordic team was always one step ahead and even led by two goals at one moment, but their Baltic opponents managed to tie the game and send it to overtime.

The overtime, on the contrary, offered a very careful and cautious floorball. Nobody wanted to take any risks, so it was quite obvious the match would be decided by a penalty shootout. The Norwegian penalty takers were not precise enough, whereas Artis Raitums and Klavs Jansons scored and Latvia could start their celebrations.