Finland vs Switzerland. How will the key match in Group A end?
On the last day of the group stage, May 21, the national teams of Finland and Switzerland will meet on the ice of the O2 Arena in Prague.
The Finnish team is currently in second place in the IIHF rankings, second only to the Canadian team. This became possible thanks to the real breakthrough of Finnish hockey in the last few years, when two gold medals were won at the World Championships, and in 2022 the team led by Jukka Jalonen became the best at the Winter Olympic Games in China. Jalonen still leads the Finnish national team, despite the relative failure a year ago, when his players finished their performance at the home world championship already at the quarterfinal stage, losing to Canada with a score of 1-4.
At the current World Championship, Finnish hockey players are at risk of being left out of the playoffs, not making it into the top four at the end of the group stage. In the five matches played, the Finnish team already has three defeats. And if the failures in the matches with the national teams of the Czech Republic 0-1 and Canada 3-5 can be attributed to the serious level of the opponent, then the defeat by the Austrian team was a real sensation. The Finns were leading 2-0, but allowed the Austrians to first equalize the score, and a second before the end of regulation time to score the winning goal. Thus, at the moment the Finnish team is only fourth in its group, three points ahead of the Austrian team.
Switzerland
The Swiss team is seventh in the IIHF rankings, having also noticeably improved recently. Over the past decade, the Swiss have reached the finals of the World Championships twice, and twice the “crusaders” lost to the same opponent, the Swedish national team. In 2013, the final match ended with a score of 1-5; in 2018, it came down to a series of post-match shootouts, where luck smiled on the hockey players of the Swedish national team.
For the last two World Championships, the Swiss team has had a perfect group tournament, finishing first in its group both times. The Swiss had problems already at the quarterfinal stage, where they lost twice, 0-3 to the USA team and 1-3 to the German team. Now the Swiss may well finish the group stage in first place again; to do this they need to win the two remaining matches. So far, the Swiss team is undefeated, with four victories in regular time (over Norway 5-2, Austria 6-5, Great Britain 3-0 and Denmark 8-0), as well as a 2-1 victory over the Czechs in a shootout.
Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Finland vs Switzerland
FinlandThe Finnish team is currently in second place in the IIHF rankings, second only to the Canadian team. This became possible thanks to the real breakthrough of Finnish hockey in the last few years, when two gold medals were won at the World Championships, and in 2022 the team led by Jukka Jalonen became the best at the Winter Olympic Games in China. Jalonen still leads the Finnish national team, despite the relative failure a year ago, when his players finished their performance at the home world championship already at the quarterfinal stage, losing to Canada with a score of 1-4.
At the current World Championship, Finnish hockey players are at risk of being left out of the playoffs, not making it into the top four at the end of the group stage. In the five matches played, the Finnish team already has three defeats. And if the failures in the matches with the national teams of the Czech Republic 0-1 and Canada 3-5 can be attributed to the serious level of the opponent, then the defeat by the Austrian team was a real sensation. The Finns were leading 2-0, but allowed the Austrians to first equalize the score, and a second before the end of regulation time to score the winning goal. Thus, at the moment the Finnish team is only fourth in its group, three points ahead of the Austrian team.
Switzerland
The Swiss team is seventh in the IIHF rankings, having also noticeably improved recently. Over the past decade, the Swiss have reached the finals of the World Championships twice, and twice the “crusaders” lost to the same opponent, the Swedish national team. In 2013, the final match ended with a score of 1-5; in 2018, it came down to a series of post-match shootouts, where luck smiled on the hockey players of the Swedish national team.
For the last two World Championships, the Swiss team has had a perfect group tournament, finishing first in its group both times. The Swiss had problems already at the quarterfinal stage, where they lost twice, 0-3 to the USA team and 1-3 to the German team. Now the Swiss may well finish the group stage in first place again; to do this they need to win the two remaining matches. So far, the Swiss team is undefeated, with four victories in regular time (over Norway 5-2, Austria 6-5, Great Britain 3-0 and Denmark 8-0), as well as a 2-1 victory over the Czechs in a shootout.
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