The Champions Hockey League final between the ZSC Lions and Färjestad is also a battle between Switzerland and Sweden. The duel has a special flavor.
18.02.2025, 04:45
18.02.2025, 07:06
SDA
The Swedish curse, who doesn't know it? Time and again in the past, the teams and athletes from the land of Ikea and Abba have stood before the sun. The term was at its peak in 2018, when the Swedes shocked the Swiss sporting world at regular intervals.
In the World Cup final, the Swiss ice hockey players were poised to win their first World Cup title, but the congratulations for gold went to the "Tre Kronor" after losing a penalty shoot-out, just like five years earlier. At the football World Cup in Russia, the Scandinavians lost in the round of 16. The women lost the final against Sweden at the Curling World Championships and the men lost the semi-final at the Floorball World Championships.
But that was not all. Wendy Holdener and Ramon Zenhäusern only missed out on victory in the slalom at the Winter Olympics in South Korea because two Swedish competitors, Frida Hansdotter and André Myhrer, were faster. Finally, the defeat against the Swedish team in the Davis Cup barrage sealed the Swiss men's tennis team's relegation.
Sweden as Switzerland's opponent of fear
But back to ice hockey. The opponent from the north developed into a veritable opponent of fear for Switzerland. It was only last November that coach Patrick Fischer's team ended their losing streak against the Swedes with a 4:3 victory on penalties after losing 16 games.
The inglorious trend definitely seems to have come to an end. In any case, after a 4-1 defeat in December and a 2-1 win after extra time in Stockholm the weekend before last, the Swiss national team's record for the season has been balanced so far.
And how are things looking in club ice hockey? In the first phase of the Champions Hockey League 2024/25, the teams from the National League and the SHL avoided each other completely - which was due to the draw. The only duels to date took place in the round of 16 between Fribourg-Gottéron and the Växjö Lakers, with Fribourg bowing out of the competition after a 0:1 and 3:3 draw.
The long-term comparison also paints a sobering picture for the Swiss clubs. Since the Champions Hockey League was relaunched eleven years ago, clubs from Switzerland and Sweden have played each other 77 times, with the northern Europeans coming out on top on 55 occasions. The balance in the knockout matches is even more clearly in Switzerland's favor: 6 wins, 5 draws and 22 defeats in 33 games.
A victory for the ZSC Lions in Tuesday's final against Färjestad would be another argument that the Swiss-Swedish curse is a thing of the past.
