Luxembourg entered the tournament as the favourites to win gold, having previously done so in 2017 in the very same arena.
The path towards the gold has been anything but clean however. After an impressive defensive display in game one, overcoming Turkey 3-2, the Lions were shell-shocked by the highly skilled forwards of Chinese Taipei, losing 4-5 in a very close contest.
In a 6-team league formatted tournament the loss meant that Luxembourg faced an uphill battle to get itself back into gold medal contention. However, after a “rest day” on Wednesday, filled with an on-ice practice and hours of video review, team Luxembourg were able to overcome an early scare to defeat last-placed South Africa 5-2.
An unexpected defeat for Chinese Taipei to Turkey means that team Luxembourg’s fate is back in its own hands.
A win this afternoon against Turkmenistan will almost guarantee at least the bronze medal and set up a gold medal game on Sunday night against hosts Bulgaria, a re-match of the 2017 final that Luxembourg famously won 10-4.
So tune into the livestream at 15:30 CEST to follow all the action:
