Norway vs Czech Republic Prediction: Another Failure of Norway

Prediction for the IIHF World Championship Norway vs Czech Republic match which will take place on May 20th. Who will turn out to be stronger? Check the team conditions! Several betting options are available. 

The Norwegian national team has finally lost their tournament motivation for the rest of the World Cup. Under particular circumstances, they had chances to achieve the playoff zone, but they had an unsuccessful tournament debut. In the four opening meetings, they got only one victory (suffered in the game with the Slovenes) – 1-0. And in the last seconds of that game, they could have missed at all. Norway scored another point against the Kazakhs, losing by shootouts – 3:4, and they lost to the Swiss and Latvians – 0:3 and 1:2. Now the Norwegians are in sixth place in the Group B standings.

The Czech national team plays very lazily in the world championship debut. At the 2023 World Cup, they brought an excellent lineup with which to qualify for medals. So, they get bored in games with competitors of a modest level. Nevertheless, Kari Jalonen's wards had made the only mistake in four games against the Latvians, when they lost in OT – 3:4. Against Slovaks and Kazakhs, they won – 3:2 and 5:1. The Czechs were close to defeat the day before when they lost to the Slovenes by the middle of the game – 0:2, but then turned the course of the meeting, scoring five unanswered goals in the third twenty–minute and won - 6:2.

The Norwegian national team plays the current World Cup very poorly. Many national team leaders did not come to the tournament, but even without them, there are performers of a reasonable level, but their game is hopeless. The Czech national team is also not impressive yet, but this does not stop them from steadily earning points, being one of the leaders of Group B. 

The Norwegian national team at the 2023 World Cup plays very modestly in attack, so it has to pay special attention to defense. In the last three matches with Norway, only 7 goals were scored (2.33 on average per game) – a meager result. The Czechs are also famous for their desire to play pragmatic hockey, so they are unlikely to score a lot of pucks. Moreover, in the last seven personal meetings, the Norwegians have forced only three goals (0.43 on average per game).