After two wins (3:0 vs. Hungary, 3:1 vs. Denmark) and two defeats (0:2 vs. Czech Republic, 1:2 vs. Japan) at the 2021 IIHF World Championship in Calgary, Canada, the German women's national team finished the preliminary round in third place in Group B. This means that the team of national coach Thomas Schädler will face the first of Group A - host Canada - in the World Cup quarterfinals.
The match against the ten-time world champions and four-time Olympic champions will take place today, Saturday, August 28, 2021. The match starts at 17 p.m. local time (01 a.m. +00 German time). The match will be broadcast live and free of charge on www.thefan.fm.
The challenge of meeting the top favorites to win the tournament in the World Cup quarter-finals couldn't be greater. Nevertheless, she looks DEB-Selection optimistic and looking forward to the duel:
National coach Thomas Schädler: "The team was obviously incredibly disappointed about the defeat yesterday. That's why we only moved slightly on the ice today to clear our heads. Now we're looking forward again. We're looking forward to playing against such a top nation as Canada. The tournament is only just getting started with the knockout games and we still have the goal of making it into the A group and the top 5."
Striker Julia Zorn: "Our last ice training was designed to help us regain our confidence as a team. A kind of relaxed warm-up to get our legs fresh again after the two back-to-back games of the past few days. With the record Olympic champions from Canada, we are definitely facing a nation in the quarterfinals that has the potential to become world champions and is of course keen on the title. It will be a very difficult task. We already met the team in the quarterfinals in 2019 and we know that we are now facing another really tough opponent. It is important that we go into the game tomorrow with offensive power and more offensive penetration and of course also do good defensive work. But we wouldn't be ourselves if we didn't put everything into winning again. And especially now that we have a few injuries in the team, we want to put in extra effort for our teammates off the ice."
Defense attorney Anna Reich: "We refocused in today's training and tried to keep it high for tomorrow's game. The quarterfinal against Canada will definitely not be easy. We know how strong this opponent is and that the Canadian team will not give us an inch on the ice. That makes it all the more important for us to give it our all and give everything we have. We are now in the quarterfinals of the World Championship and we can be proud of that."
World Cup Schedule Group B (Calgary)
Aug 21.08.2021, 12 | 00:20 p.m. (00:XNUMX p.m.) | Germany – Hungary 3:0 (2:0, 0:0, 1:0)
Aug 23.08.2021, 12 | 00:20 p.m. (00:XNUMX p.m.) | Germany – Denmark 3:1 (1:0, 2:0, 0:1)
Aug 25.08.2021, 16 | 00:00 (00:1 +XNUMX) | Czech Republic - Germany 2:0 (0:0, 1:0, 1:0)
Aug 26.08.2021, 19 | 30:03 p.m. (30:1 +XNUMX) | Japan – Germany 1:2 (1:0, 0:2, 0:0)
World Cup quarterfinals (Calgary)
Aug 28.08.2021, 17 | 00:01 p.m. (10:1 +XNUMX) | Canada – Germany