Slovenian handball team makes it to Paris Olympics semifinal

In front of more than 26,000 spectators at the Pierre Mauroy stadium Slovenia finally made it to the semifinal to fight for the medals. Having appeared in three Olympic Games before, the team's previous best result was sixth place at Rio 2016.

Slovenia dominated the first half of the matchup against Norway, leaning on a superb defensive display and scoring without major problems. Team captain Jure Dolenec scored his 703rd goal for the national team in the 21st minute to move up to the top spot in Slovenia's ranking of all-time best handball scorers.

In the second half, things got a little more difficult as Slovenia's defence faltered and Norway were quick on their feet to score goals from counterattacks.

There were moments where it seemed Slovenia might squander their lead of three or four points. Dean Bombač was red-carded in the 46th minute for striking the Norwegian goalkeeper in the head with the ball during one of the penalty kicks.

But in the end Slovenia kept a cool head and even managed to extend their lead to a five-point gap, having recorded as many as four blocked shots.

Having netted eleven goals, Slovenia's best scorer was Aleks Vlah, a Koper native who made it to the all-stars team of the preliminary round. He is currently the second best scorer of the tournament (46 goals).

Slovenia are proud of their win but also aware that it is not over yet.

Their head coach Uroš Zorman told the STA after the game: "It can always be better, but today we played a fantastic game. I can't remember the last time we controlled an opponent like we did against the Norwegians." He congratulated his players for their performances in the tournament so far.

Dolenec added: "Having reached the semifinal, we are happy but not euphoric, we had said before we left for the tournament that it all starts in the quarterfinal."

The decisive win comes after three victories and two defeats in the preliminary round, which meant Slovenia ranked second in Group A. They won against Sweden, Croatia and Japan and had to concede defeat against Spain and Germany. The latter loss was seen as a tactical move to rest the team's key players and avoid France in the quarterfinal.

Now they face Denmark in the semifinal late on Friday evening. The other two teams that made it to the semifinal are Spain and Germany, which means three out of four teams that will vie for the medals are from Group A.

This is Slovenia's best Olympic result in handball so far, but also the best Olympic result the country's team sports squads have achieved so far in addition to the national men's basketball team, which was fourth at Tokyo 2020.