Herlovsen did not squander the penalty for Wang Kun's defensive blunder in the 32nd minute, blasting the ball past the goalkeeper.

China tried to equalize before the interval and fired four successive shots in the final minute.

Norway began to use its physical advantages in the second half and nearly doubled its tally seven minutes in.

It launched a successful counter-attack in the midfield only for Ane Stangeland Horpestad's curving shot to hit the crossbar.

China answered strongly with strong efforts from Han, Ma and Xie Caixia but to no avail.

Domanski-Lyfors inserted Zhang Ouying and Zhang Tong to boost her attack but even a more aggressive China couldn't find the net.

"We have to be very efficient. We had very good chances in the first half but we did not score," Domanski-Lyfors lamented.

That's not very good. I made it 3-3-4 in the second and it nearly worked. We were very close but close is not enough."

Despite the disappointment, Domanski-Lyfors believes China's prospects are bright even if hers aren't quite so shiny.

"Football is not always logic which we can see today. You need good luck to win and sometimes we do not have it," she said.

"But firstly we have to have a good team like China, they can play really really good football, technically and tactically against the world's best teams. That's the future for China."

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