Finland vs Norway: World Championship hosts to defeat Vikings

On May 13, 2022, Finland will host the match between the home team and Norway at the Nokia Arena in the Finnish city of Tampere.

The Finland national team has been the strongest team over the last three years. Jukka Jalonen, in this time, managed to build a powerful team that in any of its line-up plays strictly according to the system. Although the backbone can be preserved every time. Suomi took gold at the 2019 World Cup, went on to win silver at the 2021 World Cup, and lost the final to Canada, while at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the Blues and Whites were triumphant. Three consecutive major international tournaments resulted in three consecutive finals. Of course, the Finns are also the clear favorites to win the 2022 World Cup at home.

Norway are consistently placed in the elite group at the World Cup, but that is their greatest achievement. The Vikings have not achieved any serious goals in a long time, being among the outsiders in every world championship. At the last World Cup 2021 in Riga, Petter Thoresen's charges finished just seventh in the standings, only beating Italy. What a success! The Norwegians also missed out on the Beijing Olympics, as they lost their qualifying game to Denmark.

• The Finnish national team has lost in the main time in the last four friendly matches in a row;
• Finland have lost only 1 of their last 14 official matches;
• Finland have beaten Norway in nine of their last nine consecutive head-to-head encounters.

Finland and Norway are teams of completely different levels. If the former are the finalists of the last three major tournaments, the latter hardly ever make it to the play-offs. Of course, Suomi are the clear favorites in the upcoming game. In addition, they'll play on home ice. Moreover, many of the leaders of the Blue and White team have not played in official matches for a long time, so they had a good rest and missed hockey, which gives reasons to place a bet on the victory of the national team of Finland with a handicap (-3.5) for 2.20.

The Finnish national team is known for its solid defense. Suffice it to recall that in the last World Cup, for the ten games, Suomi missed only 13 pucks (1.30 on average per game) - the most solid figure, characterizing the excellent work of the whole team in defense. Now Jukka Jalonen's charges will try to prevent any problems at their goal, and the Norwegian squad is not strong enough to cause problems for the home team. With this in mind, the best choice for the prediction looks like Norway's Total Under (1) puck for 1.75.

Finland are a very pragmatic and cautious team that strives to play on defense. Still, it is unlikely that in the first game at the World Championship at home against the modest Norwegians, Suomi will go into deep defense. On the contrary, they can let their emotions run high and demonstrate to the Vikings who are boss at home in such a situation. All this gives reason to look at the bet that the first goal in the match will take place from 1 to 10 minutes for 1.72.

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