Day 2 picked up where Day 1 left off at the 3v3 World Floorball Championships in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain as the playoffs got under way. With the quarterfinals set it was a great day to be a Spanish Floorball fan as both the men’s and women’s teams made it through to the Quarterfinals thereby securing both of them a highest ever finish at any Floorball WFC for both genders. Sweden steamrolled through the group stages straight to the Quarterfinals for both teams whilst Finland Men were made to sweat and fight against Austria before prevailing on penalty shots.
On the Women’s side after the conclusion of the group stages, Sweden, Latvia, Switzerland, Estonia & Finland all progressed through to the Quarterfinals by topping their groups leaving the rest to fight out for the remaining 3 places and also in the B-division for those who didn’t finish in the top 2 spaces (plus third in group A). The three playoff matches to decide the final 3 spots in the quarterfinals had Thailand overcome Slovakia, Poland defeat Singapore & hosts Spain delight the home crowd with a victory over Italy. The matchups for the quarterfinals on Sunday are as follows:
Switzerland – Spain
Finland – Poland
Sweden – Thailand
Estonia – Latvia
Matches begin at 09:40 on Sunday
On the men’s side similar to their women’s team the Swedes breezed through the group stage straight into the quarters alongside defending champions Switzerland who also made relative light work of their group stage opponents despite the strength of them. Latvia topped Group B with 4 wins out of 4 heading straight to the Quarterfinals where they will face Slovakia who came through their round of 16 matchup with Thailand. Finland managed to stop one of the biggest upsets of the tournament so far as they gritted their teeth and fought back to deflate Austria who were on the verge of making the quarterfinals for the first time as they fell to the Finns in penalty shots. Hungary managed to stop the Stefansson train of Iceland in its tracks to book their spot in the Quarterfinals alongside an incredible Spain who produced one of the greatest comebacks in 3v3 Floorball ever when they managed to overturn a 6-1 deficit in the 2nd period to force penalty shots, where backed by a super loud and supportive home crowd overcame Czechia to barge their way into the quarterfinals which look like this:
Switzerland – Hungary
Latvia – Slovakia
Germany – Spain
Finland – Sweden
Matches begin at 10:20 on Sunday.
The heat in San Lorenzo de El Escorial isn’t subsiding and neither is the action from the 3v3 World Floorball Championships. Sunday brings the medal matches as the tournament draws to a close. We will see a new winner in both categories for the first time or can Switzerland or Latvia in the Men and Finland and Switzerland in the Women reclaim 3v3 gold? All the matches live on the IFF App