DAY 9: Grand Finale Is Here! New Champions to Be Crowned Today! – 09.12.2018

The final match day of the 2018 World Championship is here! There are four matches scheduled for today, including three that will be played at the O2 Arena. First, the fans will see the 5th place game between Latvia and Germany, which will be followed by the bronze medal match between the Czech Republic and Switzerland. The highlight of the day will be the final between Sweden and Finland for the title of world champions. Arena Sparta will host the morning battle between Norway and Denmark for the 7th place.

The Sunday program will be started by the match the spectators could have already seen in Prague. It will feature Latvia and Germany, who improved their reputation after losing in the quarterfinals and won their first match in the group for the 5th do 8th place. In the group-stage match between these two teams, the Germans were more successful. After beating Latvia 5-4 they saved the Czech team from the play-offs, besides other things. Jonas Bröker starred in the match with three points and he is also his team’s scoring leader in the tournament (5+4). On the other hand, the Latvians rely most on Peteris Trekse, who is just two points behind. A very tight battle is expected again as the teams’ head-to-head record at the world championships is currently tied at 2-2.

The only and last match at Arena Sparta will also be played at 10:00. Norway will face Denmark in a battle for the 7th place as well as for credit since for sure neither of the teams want to end their participation in the tournament with three consecutive losses. The teams played against each other at this championship too. In the group stage, Norway triumphed 9-3. They decided the match in the middle period, in which they routed their opponents with five goals. Ole Mossin Olesen collected five points in the match. The Norwegian scoring leader with ten points showed several times how skilled he is when working with his stick, and who knows, maybe he will show us another trick from his collection today as well. The Danes have been struggling with finishing so far, which is also why four scored goals are enough for the eighteen-year-old Matthias Glass to lead the team’s individual statistics. And he will definitely try to help his team improve the negative head-to-head record with Norway at the championships (2 wins, 2 draws, 6 losses).

An already traditional opponent is waiting for the Czech team in the bronze medal match. Switzerland was within reach of victory in the tight battle against the favorites from Sweden, but in the end lost in the penalty shoot-out. The home team was then clearly defeated by Finland 2-7. But the result is too harsh for the Czech team as both teams had basically a similar number of chances, except that the Finns taught the Czechs a lesson of scoring efficiency. The Czech Republic and Switzerland met a total of twelve times at the world championships, with Switzerland winning seven of the encounters. But in the group stage of this championship they lost to the home team 4-6. In a bronze medal match they met six time and the head-to-head record is 4-2 for the Swiss. They now rely on the duo Meier – Maurer that scored a total of 14 goals so far. The Czech team’s individual stats are dominated by Adam Delong, who managed to score eight times already. The match starts at 13:00.

This year’s championship again has the traditional final pairing. Finland defeated the Czech Republic in the semifinal, while Sweden had a very tough job overcoming the dogged Swiss players. The Nordic rivals have already met at the tournament – Sweden in group stage turned the score around to win by one goal. In the history of the world championships there are twelve encounters between these two teams, nine of which were in the final. Sweden won nine times, but the head-to-head record from the last seven matches is just 4-3 for the Tre Kronor. This is why a very tough and evenly balanced battle for the throne of this sport is expected. The duo from Falun, Galante Carlström – Enström, collected a total of 21 points at the championship, while the Finnish scoring leader Sami Johansson has ten points. The opening face-off is scheduled at three hours after the start of the 3rd place match, that is at 16:00.