Despite having played in all the Women’s WFC’s the Czech Republic made the semi-finals for the first time in Västerås. It has been a tough ride to achieve this, after tight matches against Latvia, Sweden and today Norway.

If Norway would have won, they could still have had a small chance to proceed to the semis, so they came into the match with great self-confidence, taking an early lead by Victoria Hansen. Magdalena Sindelová, who made 2 goals today, equalized the score in the end of the first period. The Czechs took the lead by Eliska Krizovà, but Henriette Knudsen equalized again one minute later.

Ilona Novotna took the lead back to the Czechs again 12 seconds later and then the player of the match, Sindelová broke the back of the Norwegians by scoring her second goal (2-4). The penalty shot specialist Kristyna Jilkovà still increased the lead by two goals, the last superbly on the backhand from almost a zero angle.

The Czech captain Sindelová said that the Czechs knew that Norway would play long balls.
– We were prepared for this and won the one against one situations in front of their goal. I believe that we played very focused and that gave us the victory.

– I´m very happy that we reached the semi-final, which is a big satisfaction for us. Both potential oponents will be hard to beat in the semis, but we will fight hard for a place in the final.