A shock surprise was experienced in the under-18 girls’ World Cup semi-finals on Saturday, when the Czech Republic went to the final by defeating the number one favorite Canada.
The Czech Republic pulled off a huge surprise in the under-18 girls’ World Cup semi-finals by defeating Canada 4-2 in Zug, Switzerland on Saturday.
The victory is the Czech’s first against Canada in this age group all season. The Slavs previously had two World Cup bronze medals in the U18 age group, from 2008 and 2014.
In the girls’ World Cup played since 2008, Canada missed out on a place in the finals for only the second time.
The Czech Republic, which finished third in the preliminary group, led the World Cup semi-final from the first set and did not give it up, even though Canada dominated the game events and tied at best 2-2 at the beginning of the third set.
Klaudie Slavickova completed four minutes after Canada’s equalizer in the Czech Republic’s 3–2 victory in 46:08, and at the end another Anezka Cabelova. Canada’s goals were scored by the World Cup’s best scorers Chloe Primerano and Stryker Zablocki.
Canada took the shots in the semifinal 47–12, but the goalie Aneta Senkova stretched his way to 45 shots with his dream game.
Before this, Canada had played four matches in the World Cup tournament and won them all with a combined score of 35–1. In the preliminary series, it beat the Czech Republic 8-1 and Finland 10-0, among others. The Czech Republic, on the other hand, had lost in the preliminary series not only to Kanda but also to Finland 2–3.
The Czech Republic had previously surprised second-placed Sweden in the first group in the World Cup quarter-finals by 4–2.
In the second World Cup semi-final, Finland will face the United States in a match starting at 20:00. Match monitoring (text TV) here