Russia (w) vs Switzerland (w): The Russians will make the Olympic semifinals

The Russian national team has already beaten the Swiss team at the group stage of the 2022 Olympics. Will Colin Muller's girls be able to get revenge in the quarterfinals? We predict that the Russians will once again be closer to success!

Russia

The Russians were a team that was defeated in the group stage of the last Olympics in Pyeongchang, losing all three of their matches by a combined score of 1:15. However, they reached the tournament's semifinals, although they were left without any medals in the end. Evgeny Bobariko's charges have started the Olympic tournament with a victory over Switzerland - 5:2 but still managed to lose to the USA, Canada and Finland in turn, with the total difference of pucks in these three games - 1:16. Nevertheless, the Russians managed to take fourth place in the group, which is not too bad, as before the start of the Games, several key players tested positive for coronavirus, due to which they were sent to quarantine.

Switzerland

At the last Olympics, the Swiss national team played in the second group, where they managed to win all three games with a total score of 13-2, but this did not prevent them from losing in the quarterfinals. Switzerland played in the strongest subgroup and started with three straight defeats. They lost to Canada 1-12, crashed out against Russia 2-5 and lost to the USA 0-8. It seemed that Colin Muller's team were not at all competitive at such a high level, but in the final game of the group stage, they sensationally beat Finland 3-2, although, in the end, they remained in last place in the group.

Expert Betting Tips

Teams of Russia and Switzerland always play each other first in the group stage of the World Championships and the Olympics, and then they meet in the playoffs. That is exactly what happened now as the opponents have already played in the group stage in Beijing, where the Russian ice hockey team celebrated their victory with 5:2. Now they are the favourites, as the girls who were temporarily out of quarantine due to positive coronavirus tests are gradually returning to play. Even without them, Evgeny Bobariko's wards were stronger than the Swiss. As a result, we are betting on the victory of the Russian team for 1.80.

The opposition between Russia and Switzerland has been very poor in recent times in terms of performance. In their previous seven head-to-head encounters, the opponents combined for only 26 goals (3.71 on average per game), which is a very modest figure even by the standards of women's hockey. Moreover, they'll now play to advance to the semifinals of the Olympics, so there's no need for flashy, attacking hockey; reliability at the net and a win, in the end, are far more important. Given this, the best option seems to be Total Under 4.5 pucks for 1.95.

Oxana Bratisheva is one of the youngest members of the Russian National Team at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Still, she has already had the experience of playing in the World Championships, and for SKIF, she has been playing for the fifth year, although she was born in 2000. In this season, she has already had 25 points (9 goals + 16 assists) in 16 games in the ZHL, and at the Olympic Games 2022, she has already registered one assist. The young lady is in great shape, so it is worth looking at a bet on Oxana Bratisheva Total Over 0.5 points for 1.80.