Switzerland won its sixth victory in seven matches and thus finished in second place in Group A of the 2024 World Cup. This 3-1 success against a demobilized Finland was acquired without forcing by Patrick Fischer’s troop.
A “FRIENDLY” MATCH Thanks to Austria’s 4-2 defeat against an already relegated Great Britain, Finland knew since mid-afternoon that they were through to the quarter-finals. Assured of fourth place in Group A, the Nordics therefore had nothing left to play against Switzerland and this was widely felt. The Leijonat sought to save their strength in anticipation of Thursday’s derby against Sweden, the big favorite in the competition. They only sent 16 shots towards Akira Schmid, for a single goal, scored by Jere Innala in numerical superiority (38th). Not really enough to excite the public in the Czech capital.
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THE LIGHTNING OF LOEFFEL While the meeting struggled to get off the ground, Romain Loeffel took matters into his own hands. The Neuchâtel player took out of his toolbox an old memory from his Geneva days by attempting a “Gobbi-shot”, a slap shot towards the goalie taken from his own half of the ice, a tactic regularly applied by Chris’s teams McSorley. Slightly surprised, goalkeeper Harri Säteri could only deflect the puck to his right side, where a certain Kevin Fiala was. The Saint-Gallois reacted quickly by recovering the puck and going to face the usual last rampart of Bienne. The Los Angeles striker faked the shot to dribble it better and thus open the scoring (26th). A success which (finally) started the game.
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GLAUSER IN FORCE Regular partner of Roman Josi, Andrea Glauser has gotten into the habit since the start of the tournament of hiding behind her very offensive teammate, covering his back to let him express his genius without fear. The Lausanne defender, whose shooting quality is renowned in Switzerland, took responsibility by coming to support Nino Niederreiter and Kevin Fiala when they went on a counter-attack in the 28th minute. The former Friborg junior inherited the puck entering the zone and deceived Harri Säteri with a powerful delivery which left him unmoved, giving Kevin Fiala his second point of the evening. The Saint-Gallois added a third at the end of the match, when he scored 3-1 quickly (57th).
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THE CHOICES OF “FISCHI” Patrick Fischer had a few surprises in his team composition to face Finland. Among the outfield players, Sven Jung replaced Jonas Siegenthaler, while Gaëtan Haas returned to the game after ten days of absence. But the main surprise concerned the goalkeepers. If we could expect that Leonardo Genoni would be left to rest in anticipation of the quarter-final, the coach chose to trust Akira Schmid and not Reto Berra, present on the bench but probably still spared after his premature exit against Austria. The Bernese goalkeeper did rather well with just one goal conceded, bringing his total to two in 140 minutes played for his first World Cup.
QUARTER PLACE The preliminary phase of this 2024 World Cup is now over and the posters for the quarter-finals are known. The two groups ultimately experienced no real surprises since seven of the eight expected nations qualified. Only Latvia, an unexpected bronze medalist at home last year, stumbled, finishing three points behind Slovakia, who will have the daunting task of facing Canada in Prague on Thursday at 4:20 p.m. Their duel will be followed by that between the Czech Republic and the USA, still in the capital. Switzerland will travel to Ostrava to meet Germany, while Finland will do the same to face the Swedish ogre.
>> Also read: “We are looking forward to this quarter-final,” says Christoph Bertschy, Switzerland dominates Finland and will meet Germany in the quarterfinals And Canada beats Czechia in overtime
From Prague, Bastien Trottet – @BastienTrottet
