Norway went into the last session of their semifinal against Italy trailing 149-163. By the time the penultimate deal was tabled they had taken the lead, 177-175.
On the lead of the [H]9 declarer came to 9 tricks, +400.
South led the challenging [C]5. Although BBO had collapsed it is easy to work out what happened; declarer tried dummy’s queen, took North’s king with the ace, crossed to dummy’s [H]K and played three rounds of spades, ruffing. The [H]A took care of the losing club and the 2-2 trump split meant there were 12 tricks, +920 which was worth 11 IMPs, the 13 IMP lead proving to be decisive.
