The Hungarian national team won the world bandy championship in group B

The XL world bandy championship tournament for group B teams ended in Irkutsk on March 6. The teams of Hungary and Ukraine met in the final.

The match started very unexpectedly – already in the 3rd minute before the end of the game, Ukraine's striker Mikhail Skalitsky was removed. But the game started with the attacks of the Ukrainian team, where Mikhail Alexandrov looked great on the left flank . In General, the athletes acted cautiously. The opponents understood the cost of an error that could decide the fate of the final, and tried to be very careful in defense.

The first mistake was made by the defenders of the Ukrainian team. After their goalkeeper beat off the first shot of the attacking opponent , no one could prevent Hungarian Linus Shelin from finishing the ball in the goal. At this point, Ukraine played in the "minus two", and the team just did not have enough remote players who could insure their goalkeeper.

Having led in the score , the Hungarian team did not seek to force events and squeeze the opponent. The Hungarians acted extremely rationally and very effectively. By the 30th minute, the team had made only a couple of full-fledged attacks . The first of them ended with a goal, and in the second the hero was the goalkeeper of the opponents, who took a one- hundred-percent chance.

However, the Hungarian team had enough work in defense, especially towards the end of the first half. To secure their goal, the defense players had to act very selflessly. So, in one of the moments when drawing a corner, the team's defender saved his goal from a goal at the cost of an injury. And by the 40th minute, the Ukrainian team created two great chances for a goal through the efforts of Dmytro Tsymbal. Both times, the striker broke into the opponents'penalty area at speed, but in the first case, the opponents' goalie played well, and then the defenders did not allow the opponent to deliver a targeted shot.

By this time, the Ukrainian attack already felt like a host in the opponents ' half of the field, which resulted in a natural goal. Andrey Markovichenko worked well on the left flank and entered the penalty area , where he confidently dealt with the defenders and struck a striking blow from ten meters – 1:1!

The second half confirmed that the final match was successful. This was facilitated by an impressive, and for group B games – a record attendance (according to official data, the match was attended by 2354 spectators). And the game was tense, unpredictable and spectacular.

After the break, the teams started without pitching. And the first attacks made after the break turned into scoring chances. First, the Hungarians performed a great corner, and a few seconds later the hero was the Hungarian goalkeeper, who reacted to a powerful shot from Mikhail Alexandrov in the near corner. The moment did not end there – the ball ricocheted towards the goal, and here the situation was saved by a defender who knocked the ball off the "ribbon".

However, the beginning of the second half remained for the Hungarians. The team has clearly improved, started to act very aggressively in attack and actually pinned the opponents to the goal.

The Ukrainian national team played very selflessly, successfully repelling attacks. But the team missed the ball, which is called, out of the blue. David Horvath slightly rolled the ball into the far corner, and ... the defenders and the goalkeeper of the opponents saw it already in their goal.

Linus Schelling scored again in the 74th minute. Most likely, at this point, the hockey player was making a pass, but ricocheting about someone from the defenders, the ball ended up in the goal. Before the Ukrainian team had time to recover from this unfortunate misunderstanding, another ball appeared in the goal of the national team of Ukraine after drawing a corner.

Even losing with the score 1: 4, the national team of Ukraine was not going to give up without a fight and continued to look for ways to the opponent's goal. To protect the Hungarians now had to cope with attacks only with great difficulty, repeatedly stopping opponents in violation of the rules.

The end of the match was held in continuous attacks of the Ukrainian national team, and in the 86th minute the team scored. Unfortunately for the Ukrainian fans , the referees recorded a violation of the rules on the part of the attackers – the goal was not counted. Already in compensated time, Mikhail Alexandrov could have scored , but after his shot for the Hungarians, the crossbar played.

The Hungarian national team won this match with a score of 4: 1 and became the winner of the competition. Thus, this team was entitled to compete in group a in the next world championship.

After the final whistle, a short but very colorful closing ceremony of the XL world championship took place right on the ice. The winner and silver medalist of the tournament were awarded with well-deserved awards-gold and silver medals.

Atilla Adamfi, Vice President Of the international bandy Federation:

– It was a great week, which ended with a great final performed by the national teams of Hungary and Ukraine. I congratulate the winners of the gold and silver medals of the championship on these high achievements. Irkutsk coped brilliantly with the tournament. For this, I want to thank all the organizers, volunteers and, separately, the head of the Directorate for the preparation and holding of the championship, Vladimir matienko. They did a great job.

Ilya Reznik, acting Minister of sports of the Irkutsk region:

– On behalf of the acting Governor of the Irkutsk region Igor Kobzev, I want to congratulate everyone on the completion of the world bandy championship in group B, and thank the hockey players for the bright final. Thank you to The international bandy Federation for your trust. I want to invite everyone to the world bandy championship tournament for group a teams, which will be held at the new ice Palace in Irkutsk.

Press center of the V girls world championship U-17