Norway force out 1-1 draw with Germany

Underdogs Norway showed ability to grab chance as they forced out a 1-1 draw with mighty Germany in a group B match of the 2015 Canada Women's World Cup here on Thursday.

Dominating the first half with ease, Germany scored an early goal through Anja Mittag, who tapped in a loose ball from close range when Norway's goalie Ingrid Hjelmseth failed to save a shot from Dzsenifer Marozsan after six minutes.

The eight-time European champions could score more as they managed 27 shots throughout the game, compared to four from Norway, but they just could convert the chances to goals.

Norway woke up suddenly from the nightmare when they came back from the break, creating a series of scoring chances and kept the Germans on defendsive end for the first 20 minutes.

Their determination paid off on the 61st minute when Maren Mjelde curled in a free-kick just outside of the penalty area to ease the nerve for Norway.

The game was quite even after 1-1 with no team having clear advantage in the midfield, or chances to pocket three points.

"We did everything right, but just couldn't score," Germany's head coach silvia Neid said.

"We didn't play as well in the second half, giving more spaces and making too many bad passes. But I still think we're a better team, because we had 27 shots, and they had just four," she added.

Norway's head coach Even Pellerud said they were lucky to have a draw.

"If we only see the first half, we're lucky to draw. The first half almost killed us," he said. "We prepared well but my players did everything wrong in the first half."

"If you don't give 100 per cent out, not fight for every ball when you facing strong teams like Germany, you cannot win. I repeated everything during the break and we did better in the second."

With one win and one draw each, Germany and Norway almost book the 1-2 finishing of the group. Endi