While the situation in the Slovak B-group at the U20 World Hockey Championship is relatively simple, it is extremely complicated in the A-group. Only the position of the group winner is clear.
news-item-description">The hockey players of Germany surprisingly lost in the A-group match of the junior championship with Latvia 2:6 and fell to the last place in the current table. The Latvians just jumped over them. If the Germans want to advance, they must score against the tournament favorite from Canada.
In the Slovak group, it has been decided about the last team that will play for salvation, it is Norway. On Sunday, the Czech Republic and Switzerland will play a match for 3rd place and Slovakia and the USA will play a duel for first place, in both cases the math is simple, the winner takes the better position.
In Group A, it is only decided that Sweden will be first, regardless of how Sunday’s matches turn out. The rest is pretty messed up, mainly thanks to two big surprises.
Germany defeated Finland 4:3 during the tournament. Before his duel with Latvia, there were already debates about whether he would finish third or fourth. However, many underestimated the Latvians, who surprised Germany on Saturday and won a great 6:2 and won the first three points.
At the moment, the Germans, Finns and Latvians have three points each, and a mini-table has been created between them from mutual duels. Everyone has three points in it, and the score from each other’s duels is the deciding factor.
Finland has it 7:4, Latvia 6:6 and Germany 6:9. Thus, Finland is first in their mini-table, Latvia second and Germany third. If the Germans had lost by just two goals today, they would have been ahead of Latvia. If, on the other hand, the Latvians won by up to eight goals, they would also get ahead of Finland.
Head-to-head matches:
Germany vs. Finland 4:3
Finland vs. Latvia 4:0
Latvia vs. Germany 6:2
S
B
3.
Finland
7:4
3
4.
Latvia
6:6
3
5.
6:9
3
So what is the situation now? Latvia does not play any more matches, the Finns will challenge Sweden tomorrow and Germany will challenge Canada.
If Germany does not want to play for the rescue and finish last, they must get at least a point. At the same time, if he wins by three points, he will catch up with Canada (six points) and will be in second place regardless of how Finland’s duel with Sweden ends. Canada needs one point to confirm second place.
Finland can no longer finish last, but not second either. Even if they beat Sweden by three points, they would have worse matches with Canada and possibly also with Germany.
If the Finns want to finish third, they must either get one more point than Germany, or the Germans cannot score.
Slovakia already knows that in the quarter-finals it will meet the fourth team of this group if it beats the USA and the third if it loses. Canada, Finland, Latvia and Germany can still get anyone from the four.
2023-12-30 21:30:00
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