Brazil produced the first shock of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, erasing an early deficit against co-hosts Norway in Baerum, Oslo, to take the air out of the Unity Arena, thanks to a fantastic 29:26 win.

GROUP E
Norway vs Brazil 26:29 (14:12)

For the first five minutes of Norway’s debut at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, it really looked like plain sailing for the co-hosts, which went on a scoring spree, putting four unanswered goals past Brazil, thanks to some impressive fast breaks stemming from balls won in defence by Jonas Wille’s side.

After only nine minutes into the match, Brazil’s coach, Marcus Oliveira, called a team time-out, as his team looked unresponsive and found it impossible to stop Norway’s attack, even with a quick changeup from the traditional defence to a more aggressive 5-1 system.

Eventually, after Haniel Langaro scored Brazil’s first four goals, things started to settle for the South American side, which used a 4:1 run between the 11th and the 18th minutes to cut the gap to only two goals, 9:7, exerting some pressure on the hosts, fiercely supported by over 8.000 spectators in the Unity Arena in Baerum.

Scoring eight goals in the first 10 minutes was impressive for Norway, but soon, the goals dried up, as Sander Sagosen missed the next two shots after scoring with his first one, as Brazil kept the gap in check until the end of the first half.

Langaro did not score any goal after Brazil’s first four, but fellow left back Bryan Monte da Silva added two more, to maintain a two-goal gap at the break, 14:12, with everything open in the second half, much to Norway’s surprise, which thought they will have an easier match in their opener at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship.

But from there, it went from bad to worse for Norway. A slew of misses, which saw Rangel da Rosa and Mateus Cristian Martins Nascimento, Brazil’s goalkeepers, make some impressive saves, including two consecutive penalties, enabled the South American side to come closer and closer.

Not even a double penalty conceded by Edney Oliveira, who saw the red card due to accumulating three suspensions, deterred Brazil, which finally tied the score for the first time, 19:19, with 17 minutes to go, as Norway’s rhythm was totally off, both in attack and in defence.

Brazil’s first chance to go ahead was hampered by a turnover, but on the other end, Sagosen missed a one-on-one chance with Da Rosa, yet another big mistake by Norway in the slew of easy chances squandered by the Scandinavian side, which finally enabled the South American side to take the lead, 21:20, after 47 minutes.

From that moment on, the two sides tried to trade punches, but it was an underwhelming second-half performance for Norway, which saw Brazil take a two-goal lead, 26:24, with four minutes to go, as Monte da Silva and Langaro combined for 12 goals until that point, nearly half of their team’s total.

With Norway’s shooting efficiency dropping to 58%, Brazil really took advantage of their opponents’ woes and had a two-goal lead, 27:25, with only 100 seconds to go in the match, as Wille took another team time-out to try and salvage something out of his team’s opener at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship.

But the next attack saw Sagosen turn the ball again, enabling Brazil to clinch a magnificent 29:26 win, the first big shock of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, as the South American side dominated the second half, on the back of some exquisite performance from their goalkeepers and some great attacking play from Monte da Silva and Langaro.

hummel Player of the Match: Rangel da Rosa (Brazil)