Finland has a place of forced victory in the World Cup qualifiers today. The match can be watched on Friday night from Areena and TV2.
Finland will continue the Women’s World Cup qualifiers on Friday night in Trnava, Slovakia. Finland can only win the match if they want to keep their dreams of a World Cup venue alive.
After the match against Slovakia, Finland will play against Georgia next Tuesday in Helsinki. Next autumn, the top teams in Sweden and Ireland will face off in the final two qualifiers. The winner of the block will advance directly to the World Championships, the second to further qualifiers.
Finland opened the World Cup qualifiers against Slovakia in the autumn. The result of the match played in Turku at that time was a slight 2–1 victory. Adelina Engman took the lead in the 37th minute. Maria Mikolajova leveled off with a great individual performance in the 63rd minute, but five minutes later Ria Öling hit the winning goal.
In the video below you can watch the goals of the autumn match.
“The idea must not escape to the European Championships” – a lot to improve in the offensive game
– Slovakia showed its ability to strike in the autumn. They defend closely, relatively deeply, but are able to be really dangerous in counterattacks, recalls Sports Expert Jonne Kunnas.
The role of Finland’s defenders is especially emphasized. When Slovakia deprives the ball, their wingers try to move quickly behind Finland’s defense.
– Finland must be able to move the ball with high quality in order to create spaces and avoid losing the ball. Those things are on top of the last match, Kunnas inches.
In the autumn, Finland also defeated Georgia. Sweden, the group’s great pre-favorite, defeated Finland 2–1 in Gothenburg, but the fact that Ireland also defeated Finland 2–1 in Helsinki at the Olympic Stadium is particularly stingy.
Now there is no room for loss of points against Slovakia or Georgia to keep the World Cup dreams alive for the autumn matches in Sweden and Ireland.
– Surely it shows in the preparation in some way. Finland should be able to see these two matches separately now, and thoughts must not escape the European Championships this summer. Because these Slovakia and Georgia games are in no way preparing for the Summer Games. These need to be seen as a different challenge, developing your own gaming and taking six points, Kunnas piles up.
According to Kunnas, Finland must definitely improve the structure of offensive play from the previous match in Slovakia.
– Finland progressed too much along the same lane with rapid attacks. Slovakia defends deeper, making such attacks easier to defend. It should be possible to move the ball in the width direction and thereby gain space inside and behind the Slovak shape. Otherwise it will be awkward, and it was awkward there in Turku as well.
There is cause for concern – “Finland also had great difficulties with previous strengths”
Finland have lost four of their last five matches and played once. Helmarit has scored two goals in them, conceding 12.
After a 1-2 loss to Ireland and Sweden in the autumn, Helmarit played in a tough French tournament in February. There, the ride was cold, except for the last game’s level increase, when Finland lost 0–5 to France, 0–3 to the Netherlands and played 0–0 with Brazil.
Is there any reason to worry about the Helmars playing in the bigger picture? In the opinion of the municipality, absolutely.
– Against France, the Netherlands and Brazil, Finland had great difficulties with ball-playing, but also with its previous strengths, ie close defense and high-quality counter-attacks.
– However, they are the weapons with which Finland must succeed in the tough start in the summer European Championships.
In the English European Championships in July, Finland will face Germany, Spain and Denmark in the first round. Germany is 4th in Fifa, Spain 7th and Denmark 15th. Finland’s ranking is 28th.
The French tournament, where Finland faced three countries in the top 10 in the world, and the World Cup qualifiers against Slovakia and Georgia must be distinguished.
However, Finland has also had difficulties in playing ball against weaker countries in advance, says Kunnas.
– How can Finland deal with its own ball play when the opponent is not active? Finland had great difficulty in slow, organized attacks to reach the finish line when Slovakia and Ireland gave Finland control of the Ball.
– Finland should be able to maintain its good elements in defense and counter-attacks against hard countries. It is important for the summer Games. In terms of these World Cup qualifiers against weaker countries, it is essential how Finland finds ways to break the opponent’s defense through its own feed game, Kunnas sums up the concerns still mentioned.
Slovakia and Finland will face off in the World Cup qualifiers on Friday 8.4. The match will be shown on Areena from 9.20 pm and on TV2 from 9:50 pm.