We already know the Champions League hockey semi-final pair. In the battle to reach the grand final, HC Vitkovice Ridera will face Skelleftea AIK, while Geneva-Servet will face Luko Rauma. This is the second time in the history of this competition that teams from four different countries are in the top four (in the current season, they are representatives of the Czech, Swedish, Swiss and Finnish leagues). In the 2018/19 season, the teams of Frolunda Gothenburg (Sweden), Munich (Germany), Pilsno (Czech Republic) and Salzburg (Austria) reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.
A Pole who has a chance to win the Champions League!
In the first semi-final, HC Vitkovice Rider will face Sweden's Skelleftei AIK. The match will be held at the Ostravar Arena, where the Polish national team, which will play in the elite after a 22-year hiatus, will play group matches of the World Cup in May. In this edition of the Champions Hockey League, the only Pole – Kamil Walenga said goodbye to the Champions League. The Ocelari Trzyniec team he is a player of lost to Skelleftea AIK in the Round of 16.
Vitkovice's Champions League-registered squad still includes forward Jakub Slusarczyk, who is normally a junior player at HC Vitkovice, but occasionally trains with the first team and even made his debut in the Czech top flight. At the end of October last year, with an away defeat, Energi Karlovy Vary in a 1:3 match. The Polish striker has a very small chance of debuting in the Champions League this season. – There is always a chance and I am not worried if it happens. I always train hard and calmly wait for my future opportunities. I believe that sooner or later I will get them and I will do everything to use them and convince our coaches – says the 20-year-old striker. In fact, our hockey player was close to making his debut in this prestigious competition, with a 5-1 home win against the Rappersville-Jona Lakers in the quarterfinals. – The day before the match, the coach of our youth team informed me and Joseph Kreisa that we should play in this match. We were not only at the evening training, but also at the morning breakout on the day of the match. In the fourth attack I had to play together with Rastislav Dej and Valentin Klera. Then I received a message that my game was in doubt and finally, a few hours before the match, it turned out that I would not play in the match. Instead of a match with the Rapperswill team, I had a regular training session with the juniors – recalls Shlusarchyk.
Vitkovic's team is not doing very well in the current season in the Czech league. The team is only in the twelfth place and is fighting to get out of the preliminary stage of the playoffs. During the season, there was a change in the coaching bench and the new coach of the team was Pavel Trnka, who previously led the junior team together with Jakub Shlusarchyk. Vitkovic's team – as opposed to competing at home – performs much better in the Champions League. In the knockout phase, they managed to get rid of Pelikans Lahti and Rappersville-Jona Lakers, and although they are not favorites in the fight for the finals, they are not completely lost. – We have outstanding personalities, but the great potential of this team is the whole team. When we play at home, we will definitely want to use speed to move the puck, as we always do, because we are strong in that element. We know very well that we need to make good progress before the return match, which will take place on a very difficult terrain – the Polish striker claims.
Sweden's favorite…
On the way to the semi-finals, the Skelleftei AIK team first knocked out the mentioned Trinets “Stalunnik” team, whose player is Kamil Valenga, and in the quarter-finals, after a very fierce competition, they turned out to be better. In “Swedish War” than Farjestad Karlstad. Skelftea lost the first leg 3-4 at home, but managed to win the second leg 4-1 in Karlstad, although it was still 1-1 at the end of the third period. – Unfortunately, in the second match, several players suffered injuries and David Tomasek was in the training camp of the Czech national team. We played very well in the first match, where we were focused and made good tactical assumptions. We played them at full speed for sixty minutes. It was a team and you could see the heart. In the second leg, we had breaks at the end of the match, which our opponent took advantage of and secured a place in the semi-finals – recalls the two-legged match against Skelleftea AIK, Farjestad goalkeeping coach Maciej Szwoch, who has Polish roots. . This is Skeleftei's eighth start in the Champions League. Their biggest success so far was reaching the semi-finals in their first season in 2014/15. Then another Swedish team, Lulea, won by one goal on aggregate. Skelleftea AIK are the favorites for this two-legged tie and the first leg in the Czech Republic looks set to decide the fate of this competition. On paper, the Swedes seem to have the upper hand. – Skelftea is a team that prefers a difficult, sometimes sharp game. Their style is based on the speed and hard work they do in every match. They have a lot of individuality, but these players play for the good of the team. A big problem for them will be the absence of young 18-year-old defender Axel Sandin Pelika, who is struggling with an injury. He was selected in the first round of the draft last year ahead of the Detroit Red Wings, and Skelleftea has a big upside. His absence in this match, of course, will be the main weakness in the two games against Witkovice – emphasizes Maciej Swatch.
Helveti dreams of a historic final!
In the second semi-final match, Switzerland's champion Geneva Servette will face Finland's Luko Rauma. With the current formula of the Champions League, the Swiss club has never played in the finals. In previous years, HC Davos, HC Fribourg-Gotteron and last season EV Zug had the chance to do so. Now, the Geneva team will have a historic opportunity, as they have defeated German vice-champion ERC Ingolstadt and Sweden's defending champion Vaxio Lakers en route to the semi-finals. The Helvetians are not favorites in this competition, but Genève-Servet fans are full of optimism ahead of this two-legged tie. – There is an opinion that if they managed to reach this far, they should take another step and reach the finals. Especially since Luko Rauma is not a very famous club from Finland, so it might be an advantage for them. Everyone knows it will be a very even two-legged match, and although Luko's team has the better chance of advancing, it should give Geneva's team more comfort, says Henrik Groot, a four-time Olympian based in Switzerland. more than twenty years. Last season, the Geneva-Servet team won the historic national championship by defeating the EHC Biel-Bienne team in an extremely brutal playoff final.
In the current season, the Geneva team is not doing so well, currently the team is fighting for a place in the top six, which guarantees a direct game in the playoff phase. The Swiss now have a two-legged tie against Luko Rauma and although they are not considered favourites, they undoubtedly have the advantages they want to give the Finns a scare, especially when playing in front of their home crowd. Their preference will be primarily to play with advantages and disadvantages, which is of great importance considering the changes that the Champions Hockey League authorities have introduced from this season. – They have long been known for this throughout Switzerland. I vividly remember that when I was working in Zurich, when I was working on a game for the Geneva team, I spent a lot of time on their advantages and disadvantages. “I remember that their current coach, Ian Cadier, as a player, was one of the best players I knew, especially when I was playing for a short time,” Groote emphasized.
Luko a dark horse?
Perhaps the winner of this edition of the Champions League will be Luko Rauma. Of the four representatives of the Finnish league: Tapara Tampere, Ilves Tampere, Lahti Pelikans and Luko, it was the Rauma team that remained in the fight for victory in the Champions Hockey League. The Finns finished third in the regular season of the Champions League, winning five of their six matches, while beating HC Innsbruck and Dynamo Pardubice in the knockout phase. – They play fast hockey with a lot of passes. They are good at forechecking, they like to impose their style of play on their opponents, but this is not characteristic of Finnish hockey, as it is more like Central European hockey. But this is their great advantage – emphasizes Tomek Valtonen, the former coach of the Polish national team, who managed Jokerit Helinka ten years ago together with the current coach of Luko – Tomi Lamsa. The former coach of our national team believes that Luko is the favorite in this pair, although both matches will not be easy for the Finns. – The Geneva team plays very disciplined hockey, based on a very strong defense. They have several players who can find the back of the net, so it will not be a comfortable opponent for Rauma's team. I expect two very equal matches, but in favor of Luko, because they have more advantages – asserts Valtonen.
The broadcast of the first semi-final matches of the Champions League in ice hockey (the return matches will take place on January 16):
Tuesday (January 9):
– HC Vitkovice Ridera – Skelleftea AIK live at 17:50 on Polsat Sport Fight
– Geneve-Servette – Lukko Rauma live from 20:05 on Polsat Sport Premium 3