Certainly very few people would have predicted that Brazil would pose any kind of challenge for the Norwegain favourites.
On paper Norway have a significantly better team than the South Americans and in addition, Norway were playing in front of a passionate home crowd of 8.000 spectators in Oslo.
The opening of the match gave no indications that Norway would run into problems as they quickly established leads of 4-0 and 8-3 but at the break, the unsung Brazilians had reduced the deficit to 14-12.
Technically the Norwegians were superior and managed to set up a string of chances but two strong goalkeepers, especially Rangel da Rosa helped to keep Brazil in the contest in the second half as the home side wasted a host of chances.
When the Norwegians then gradually began to lose concentration in their defensive game, the Brazilians didn´t waste any time taking the lead which they never surrendered again a shellshocked bunch of Norwegian players.
Another one of the three host countries of the World Cup, Croatia, got their World Cup campaign off to a great start.
At home in Zagreb, Croatia were superb in the opening match against Bahrain as they recorded a 36-22 win after leading 17-9 after the first 30 minutes.
Although Denmark was not in action on Wednesday, World Cup matches were still played in Herning in Denmark.
On Wednesday evening, Germany won their clash with Poland 35-28 in a half-empty arena, where the noise never reached the levels that are expected when Denmark play their second match of the tournament Thursday night against Tunesia.
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