
Will Switzerland live up to its role as favorite?
Will Denmark’s fairy tale continue, or will Switzerland be the fairy tale killer? For the first time ever, the Danish ice hockey team has reached the semi-finals, which already makes our Switzerland vs. Denmark tip something special.
Nevertheless, the Swiss are of course considered the clear favorites, having won the preliminary round match 5-2. We expect a similar result for the semi-final, especially since the Danes now have to play in Stockholm.
Without wanting to belittle the Danes’ success in the quarter-finals against Canada, it took an outstanding performance from goalie Frederik Dichow, who saved a total of 39 shots from the Canadians – a tournament best.
We doubt that he will be able to repeat this feat against Switzerland. Therefore, our prediction for Switzerland vs. Denmark is a victory for Team Switzerland, which will advance to the final of the Ice Hockey World Championship again after 2024.
Switzerland – Statistics & current form
Things have been going quite well for Switzerland at this World Championship so far. In the quarterfinals, they were faced with a surprise team in Austria, and now in the semifinals, they are facing the same situation with Denmark. Who would have thought that they would be such clear favorites in both knockout games?
Of course, they now need to capitalize on this and advance to the final with a focused performance. However, the Swiss have already shown against Team Austria that they are capable of doing this, and they didn’t give anything away in their 6-0 win.
Good start to the game is an advantage
Switzerland won the first period against Team Austria 3-0, and a similar start would be worth its weight in gold against Denmark. We strongly believe that they will succeed, so our first betting tip for Switzerland vs. Denmark is on Switzerland to win the first period.
They also won the first period against Hungary (2-0), Norway (2-0), the USA (2-0) and in their first encounter with the Danes in the preliminary round (1-0). That first match, which ended 5-2 in favor of the Swiss, is also a good blueprint for them.
Tips on Switzerland recommended again
In the match two weeks ago, however, they had a brief weak phase in the second period and even fell behind 1-2 for a short time. They should learn from this and take the Danish back line seriously this time around.
If they do that, we don’t foresee any surprises in this match. The Swiss should take their task seriously, as they did against Austria, so a bet on Switzerland against Denmark is still a good option, even with a handicap of -2.5.
Key Players:
- G: Leonardo Genoni
- D: Jonas Siegenthaler
- D: Dean Kukan
- LW: Sven Andrighetto
- C: Denis Malgin
- RW: Timo Meier
Denmark – Statistics & current form
Denmark and the semi-finals are certainly two words that don’t necessarily go together in ice hockey. However, this year it’s happened, and it was somehow clear that this could only happen at the World Championships in their own country.
But how far can Head Coach Mikael Chrintz-Gath’s surprise team go now? We are relatively certain that Switzerland will be the end of the road. After all, the fairy tale was already more than just a story with the quarter-final and semi-final qualifications.
Luck is likely to have run out
Already in the group final against the German team, they needed a lot of luck towards the end and also German players who failed to capitalize on even the best chances (Ehliz, for example, in overtime). And the Canadians also shot a total of 40 times at goalie Frederik Dichow’s net.
In a single game, it can happen that the other team wins anyway. But basically – and this can currently be seen again in the NHL – this is not sustainable. It is rare for the team with fewer shots on goal to prevail three times in a row.
Betting on few Danish goals is an option
They scored twice against the Canadians. But firstly, both goals came in the last two minutes and secondly, the Swiss defense is a little better than the Canadians (Switzerland: 1.13 goals against per game). We simply don’t think the Danes are capable of scoring more than one goal.
This means that the odds on Denmark scoring less than 1.5 goals in Switzerland vs. Denmark are also a nice alternative bet. With odds of up to 1.80, we still get reasonable value for this bet.
Key Players:
- G: Frederik Dichow
- D: Phillip Bruggisser
- D: Markus Lauridsen
- LW: Nick Olesen
- C: Patrick Russell
- RW: Nicklas Jensen
Switzerland – Denmark Head-to-head record / H2H record
Similar to the match against Canada, the head-to-head record against Switzerland is clearly unfavorable for the Danes. Eight of the last ten matches went to Switzerland, many of them very clearly. At the last World Championships in 2022, 2024 and here in the preliminary round, the results were 6-0, 8-0 and 5-2.
That gives an average winning margin of 5.7 goals. It’s unlikely to be quite so clear-cut this time around, but a difference of at least three goals would not surprise us here.
This makes Switzerland vs. Denmark odds of -2.5 for a Swiss victory one of our top picks. Overall, our prediction for Team Switzerland vs. Team Denmark is therefore an easy win for the Swiss.
Switzerland – Denmark Tip
The Danes were also considered the clear underdogs against Canada and proved all the experts wrong. However, they had a lot of luck and only won in the last two minutes. Statistically speaking, it is very unlikely that something like this will happen again.
And since we look at statistics when making predictions, our clear betting recommendation for Switzerland vs. Denmark is Switzerland -2.5. Betting on Switzerland in the first period is another option here.
As a player bet, we also have a Swiss player on our list: Sven Andrighetto. With seven goals so far, he leads the World Cup scoring charts alongside several other players and should be one of several players to get on the scoresheet again on Saturday.