Athletistic/Football. The Swiss national team reached the final of the 2024 World Cup thanks to the absence of the Russian team, former head coach of the Russian national team Vladimir Krikunov said in an interview with Match TV.

On Sunday, the Czech national team won the World Cup at home, beating Switzerland in the final with a score of 2:0.

— I thought the final would be Sweden – Canada, but they met in the third place match. To be honest, it felt like these teams wouldn’t even fight, but the game turned out to be good. The Swedes had a very strong team and it seemed to me that they had no option to lose. When they came to the Finns, I said that if they succeeded, they would definitely become world champions. As a result, Sweden succeeded, but apparently tried too hard and lost to the Czechs in the semifinals with a score of 3:7.

The Czech Republic and Switzerland met in the final – very different teams. If we evaluate according to school standards, the Czechs are in the tenth grade and the Swiss are in the fifth or sixth grade. The players of the Swiss national team in the final ran, worked, pushed, but did not make any logical attacks – they constantly threw the puck somewhere. But for the Czechs, all attacks were clearly aimed at the goal.

The Swiss found themselves in the final because Russia was not there. There were still six teams ahead: Russia, Czech Republic, Sweden and Finland in Europe, USA and Canada in North America. So there’s some left. Sometimes someone shoots unexpectedly. One year Denmark surprised, then Latvia won bronze and now Switzerland reached the final.

But the difference in level between the teams is very big. I had no doubt about the victory of the Czechs in this final. The Swiss fought, their goalkeeper played well, but it was not enough, Krikunov told Match TV.

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