Estonia wins WC DIIA

In a group where Croatia and Serbia were thought to be the candidates to battle with Estonia for the only spot to get promotion, Spain was the big surprise but in the end was stopped by a stronger Estonian team.

The tournament started on 12 April with the first big surprise when Spain beat Croatia 3-2 with two very late goals - the game winning goal even with only three seconds left in the regular time. Spain continued to beat New Zealand, Serbia and the hosts from Iceland but in the decisive last game against Estonia a 3-5 loss let all the dreams of promotion of the Spaniards die.

After their initial loss against Spain, Croatia improved game by game and even came to a close 2-3 loss against the favourites from Estonia. Three consecutive wins against the weaker teams didn't help to turn the outcome of the tournament around and so Croatia finished third behind Estonia and Spain. Iceland with two wins - one of them against Serbia - played as expected but couldn't get the big surprise while Serbia itself was the biggest deception of the tournament by only winning against a New Zealand team that never had a chance and became worse and worse by every opponent they faced. With 5:59 goals and five consecutive losses they never were close to avoid relegation to DIIB.

 

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