Tuija Hyyrynen had met the players of the Italian team, who were full of self-confidence, before the surprise loss to Finland. He heard that the Italians were complaining about the cold weather.
The Finnish national football team rarely defeats Italy, and even so that they rise from a losing position to victory, but that’s what happened on Tuesday in Helsinki. The women’s national football team Helmarit beat Italy 2–1 in Helsinki in the European Championship qualifiers.
How tough is it then?
On Tuesday, the Finnish women’s national football team took a rare victory over one of the big football countries. According to the Finnish Football Association’s statistics, Finnish women have faced Italy fourteen times. Now Finland beat Italy for the second time in the women’s category. The first victory came in May 2009 in Helsinki with a score of 3–2.
Finnish men have faced Italy fifteen times. The only victory is from the first meeting in history at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912. At that time, Finland was also stronger 3–2.
The Finnish women’s national football team is ranked 27th in the world rankings of the International Football Association. Italy is 14th. Even in that sense, the victory is hard for the Finnish national volleyball team in real games, i.e. in qualifying matches or in actual matches.
In this sense, the previous harder blow from the Finnish national basketball teams was probably from February 2022, when the Finnish men’s basketball team defeated twice Olympic quadruple and reigning European champion Slovenia in the World Cup qualifiers. At that time, Susijeng and Slovenia had a difference of 31 places in the world ranking. Finland was 35th and Slovenia 4th at that time.
The surprising shock element of helmets
Long-time Finnish national football team player Tuija Hyyrynen knows very well the Italian team that the Helmareits brought down. Hyyrynen ended his playing career after the previous European Championships in autumn 2022. He won five Italian championships in the ranks of the Italian major club Juventus.
Hyyrynen calculated that there were more than ten players in the Italian national team that faced Finland with whom he has played. Hyyrynen had met his old teammates before the match.
Hyyrynen considers them like his second family. He had noticed their satisfaction before their match, as Italy had taken a hard-fought victory over the Netherlands in their opening European Championship qualifier last week.
Hyyrynen also did not set out to take their satisfaction away by warning them about Finland, but they had mainly discussed other things than football.
However, one thing had been on the minds of the Italians before the match. They felt that it is cold in Finland.
On Monday, however, Helsinki had nice spring weather, ten degrees warmer.
– They said that it has been terribly cold here. I thought that it has been warm here the last few days. However, it had been 26 degrees warm in Turin. There was a small element of shock here, which spoke for the Helmares, Hyyrynen laughed.
After the match, Hyyrynen didn’t bother to tell his friends about the defeat, because he saw that the Italians were really disappointed by the defeat. Hyyrynen believes that the defeat against Finland will remain etched in the minds of the Italians who left Finland on Tuesday evening for a long time.
– I sent a few messages to the players. One replied that congratulations on winning and you deserve it. At least they were humble after the game, Hyyrynen described.
This is how the European Championship place is decided
The EC qualifiers continue in Helmarei in May-June due to an interesting situation. Finland will first face away from home and immediately after in a home game in Tampere against last year’s World Cup quarter-final team Holland.
With the new qualifying system, Helmareid’s A-level group is already very tough with the regulars of prestigious competitions like Norway and Italy. Now after the first games, the situation is interesting when the teams are tied.
The top two from the group go directly to next year’s European Championships. The last two still make it to the further qualifiers.
Even if Finland doesn’t make it to the Games from the tough group, the Helmarii have another good chance to make it to the Games.
In the opening game of the further qualifiers, the A-level teams will face the C-level teams. According to the current world ranking, the best team of these is Romania, in 45th place. Finland beat Romania three times last year with a goal difference of 11–0.
In the second qualifying match, teams from the B level could be met as well. Among the teams of that level, Portugal, Switzerland and Northern Ireland played in the previous European Championships. Of these, Switzerland has already secured its place in the European Championship for 16 teams as the tournament organizer.
Marko Saloranta started as Helmarit’s head coach after the previous European Championships in the summer of 2022. Led by Saloranta, Helmarit went on their hardest winning streak in ten years last year, but have mostly played against teams clearly weaker than them. At that time, there was a lot of speculation as to whether Finland would do well against tough teams.
– Beating Italy was proof that Finland can beat tough countries. This leaves you wondering if you could beat Holland or Norway. Why not? Of course it’s a really big challenge, Hyyrynen opens the meaning of the victory in Italy in a bigger picture.
Updated at 16.11. Added women’s international matches to the statistics of the Finnish Football Association and deleted an incorrect Soccerway fact.