Petruhin makes up against Czechs

In the decisive confrontation for going to the final game that can bring fifth place, Russia looks to have found their spirit, with Petruhin making up for his missed penalty tw days earlier, winning 21-23 against their well known rival Czech Republic.

Russia starts with Artamonov on the bench and Petruhin in the starting line-up. The first ten minutes shows an equal game where both squads change in having the upper hand by one goal. Two goals by Russian captain Kazachkov bring the first two goal lad for Russia, going up to 4-7. The Czechs need until 9-9 to catch up and keep leveling with Russia until 11-11. Then it's two goals by Petruhin that bring Russia in the lead again, 11-13. Chech republic equalizes to 13-13 and a missed penalty by Petruhin, after scoring one earlier in the game, keeps this score for half time.

Czech Republic has a strong start in the second half, taking the initiative and being in the lead. Russia is able to level again constantly though. At 17-17 it's Petruhin with two goals that puts Russia in the lead again, but only for a short time as the Czechs make 19-19. Petruhin scores again and then Sladek misses a penalty for Czech Republic that may be crucial for this game. Russia scores the 19-21 and Usachev makes it 19-22, the biggest goal difference of the game so far. The Czechs take a time-out, score 20-22, but Petruhin scores 20-23. The final stage of the game brings no less than three missed penalties, but with two of them being Russian and Czech Republic scoring one more goal, this has no effect on the result, other than that Rusia may have had a larger goal difference. Final score is 21-23 and for the first time in a long period Russia overtakes Czech Republic in a large tournament.

Top scorer for Russia is Petruhin with nine goals, where for Czech Republic Podzemsky scores five and Seifert scores four. Russia is off to play for fifth place and Czech Republic plays for seventh.