Finland vs Austria Prediction: A Sleeping Giant?

While Sweden, Canada, and the United States remain the top three favorites to win the 2024 IIHF World Championship, Finland has been quietly lurking in the background. After opening the preliminaries with a disappointing 1-0 overtime loss to the host Czechian squad, Finland has won its last two games convincingly. They absolutely smoked Great Britain 8-0 before defeating Norway 4-1 in their third game. The best sports betting sites in Finland have Finland listed at about 10.00 to win the tournament.

Things have gone quite as swimmingly for Austria. However, they did surprise many hockey buffs by making a game of it against Switzerland in their second game. After getting spanked 5-1 by Denmark in their tournament opener, Austria kept pace with the Swiss up until the very last minute when Roman Josi assisted on a goal by Nico Hischier. Despite this display, Austria remains a huge long shot to win this tournament. The best betting sites in Austria have Austria priced at around 751.00 to achieve ultimate glory.

Before these two teams meet on the 16th, Austria will be in the unenviable position of facing a powerhouse Canadian team. Meanwhile, Finland should be well rested. As expected, Finland enters this game as a very heavy 1.06 moneyline favorite against the 26.36 Austria moneyline.The spread is set at 3.5 with Finland backers getting 1.82 odds and Austria backers getting 1.93. The game total is set at 5.5. MightyTips has all of the latest World Championship news and predictions.

Pre-match odds Finland vs Austria

	Finland	X	Austria
	1.10	9.50	21.00

Finland’s offense has been led by 20-year-old Oliver Kapanen who leads the tournament with 5 goals in his first three games. Ahti Oksanen, Mikael Granlund, and Oliwer Kaski each have 4 points. Goalies Emil Larmi and Harri Sateri have both been very good too.For Austria, Lukas Haudum and Clemens Unterweger lead the way with 3 points each in their two games. However, Austria’s goaltending has not been good at all. Both starters have save percentages under .853.

From a goal differential point of view, Finland is the vastly superior team. Their 12 goals for and 2 goals against put them atop Group A at +10. On the other side, Austria has scored just six goals in 3 games while surrendering 15 for a total of -9. We have all of the latest hockey news right here at Mighty Tips.

Finland Injuries

Finland comes into this match healthy as well as rested. This might be a good spot for the finnish to toss Emil Larmi between the pipes although that decision will come closer to game time.

Austria Injuries

Assuming Austria makes it out of its match against Canada unscathed, they too will have a healthy team although they may be a bit tired after playing 3 games in 5 days.While a starting goalie has not been announced, David Madlener appears to be the forerunner at this point.

Finland’s moneyline odds of 1.06 don’t offer much value. However, that -3.5 puckline at 1.82 looks quite appetizing. Aside from this being a mismatch in all areas on paper, Finland will be better rested. Still, we can’t forget that Austria almost stunned Switzerland who are a very similar team to Finland. This may also be a look-ahead spot for Finland as they face Canada two days later in what will be a critical game in this IIHF 2024 ice hockey world Championship.

Moreover, Finland only beat Norway 4-1, and Austria is theoretically a tad stronger than Norway. Finland’s probably going to win, but covering the 3.5-goal spread is a different story. 1.93 | 1xBet - Austria +3.5 WIN

• Finland has scored four goals or fewer in 9 of its last 10 games.
  1.81 | 1xBet - Finland Team Total Under 4.5

• Austria has scored 1 goal in its last two meetings with Finland.
• Finland has allowed just 2 goals in its first three games.
  2.48 | 1xBet - Finland Clean Sheet