Czech Republic vs Great Britain: The British will suffer a major defeat at the start of the tournament

On May 14, 2022, the Finnish city of Tampere will host another Ice Hockey World Championship match between the Czech Republic and Great Britain at the Nokia Arena.

The Czech Republic are the underdog at all recent major international tournaments, as they have not managed to reach the medals for a long time. The last time they won in 2012, they were bronze medallists, after which they reached the semi-finals three times, but every time they failed. The Czech Republic crashed out in the last 16 at the Beijing Olympics before manager Filip Pešan was fired, succeeded by Kari Jalonen, the first international manager of the Czech national team. He has guided the Czechs to two solid finishes in the last two rounds of the Eurocup, but the Finn will be mostly tested at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Great Britain and hockey are incomparable until 2018 when the home nation managed to qualify for the world's top division for the first time since 1994. At the 2019 World Cup, the British lost without a chance to anyone, and there was no doubt that they would be relegated to League Two again, but in the deciding game, they sensationally beat France 4-3 to remain in the elite. That result fired up the British team to such an extent that they were even better at the 2021 World Cup, scoring 4 points. First, they beat Denmark 2-3 in overtime and then beat Belarus 4-3 to finish bottom of their group so that we would see Peter Russell's squad in the World Cup for the third year in a row.

• The British team has lost its last seven matches with a total score of 6:32;
• The Czech Republic have not lost in regulation time in six consecutive games;
• The Czech Republic beat Great Britain 6-1 at the 2021 World Cup.

The Czech Republic have been through a serious shake-up in recent months so that they can expect a solid performance at the 2022 World Cup. After all, they have a new head coach and a very decent squad. The Brits are a much less high-level team, which sensationally escaped into the elite of world hockey twice in a row, but in games against the top teams, they always fail, and very painful ones at that. Now Kari Jalonen's charges are the odds-on favorites, which begs the bet on the Czech national team's victory with a handicap (-4.5) for 1.62.

The Czech Republic have started to win consistently and played well offensively with a new head coach. In the last five games under Kari Jalonen, the Czechs scored 21 goals (4.20 goals per game on average), although their opponents were more serious teams than Great Britain. Before the 2022 World Cup, the British conceded eight goals in a friendly with the Danes, while a more serious rival should still have a handful of pucks in their goals. Therefore, the Czech Republic's Total Over 6.5 pucks for 1.97 may be a good bet for our prediction.

Given the stark difference in quality, the Czech Republic and Great Britain face each other at a level that would be awkward to compare. Of course, Kari Jalonen's charges will win. With a good score and not to waste their nerves and not sweat too much, the Czechs would be nice to open the scoring as quickly as possible and then gradually build on their superiority and enjoy the game. In such a situation, a bet that the first goal in the match will take place from 1 to 10 minutes inclusive is worth considering at odds of 1.46.

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