Finland’s victory over Austria allows France to stay in the World Elite

While it still has three matches to play (including the one against Sweden this Saturday), in the group stage of the World Championship in Tampere (Finland), the France team is already guaranteed to stay in the world elite. Their maintenance, the Blues owe it to Finland, co-organizer of the World Cup, which dominated Austria (3-1) on Saturday afternoon.

The Austrians are three points behind France in the Group A standings. They now have only one game to play, Monday against Hungary. If they win in regulation time, Austria will score three points and come back up to the Blues (unless the latter have scored points themselves against Sweden and/or the United States on Sunday).

But France having beaten Austria, last Saturday for his entry into the World Cup, Philippe Bozon’s players will finish ahead of the Austrians anyway. And since only one team goes down to Division 1A…

The maintenance was the announced objective of the French team. Relegated in 2019, the latter returned to the top flight last year, after the suspensions of Russia and Belarus following the invasion of Ukraine. And the French had already succeeded in ensuring their maintenance in 2022.