The stakes were high in the first match in O2 Arena. Estonia and Russia played for the 7th place of the WFC. The winner of this match will be directly qualified to the WFC 2010, but the loser will have to take part in the qualifications.
Both of the teams had lots of energy in the beginning of the match and there was a lot of speed in the game. High tempo created counter attacks, which both teams were able to take advantage of. The match remained equal and the score in the first intermission was 4-3 to Russia.
In the second period Estonia started to have problems in their defense play and Russia got more and more chances to score. Two Zorro goals by Alexander Taldonov and Roman Druzhininskiy took Russia into 7-3 lead during the first five minutes of the period.
Estonia gave too much space to skillful Russian players in front of the goal. Russia took advantage of this and in the end of the second period the score was already 12-5 to Russia.
The tempo of the game went down in the last period as Russia concentrated more on the defense. Estonia had the ball in possession, but the tight Russian defense did not give them enough chances to score. Therefore the final score was 14-8 to Russia that took the 7th place of the World Championships 2008. The seventh place means a direct spot to the WFC 2010.
After the match Russian head coach Sergey Taldonov was surprised and happy of the direct qualification. More of his comments are here. The Estonian head coach Jari-Petri Anttila gave the credit to Russia for the victory, but ensured that Estonia will fight their way to the next championships. More of Anttila´s thoughts are found here.
