Finland’s under-21 men will meet group leader Romania in Tampere in the European Championship qualifiers. You can follow the match live from Areena from 17:50.
Timo Uusitalo,
Juha Kokkala
Euro qualifiers for the under-21 footballers: Finland – Romania on Tuesday 10.9. at 17:50 Areena, Tampere, Tammela
The stakes are high in the night’s struggle of the little pretenders, when the top three countries of the E group have only three matches left. With a two-goal home win over Romania, the group win and the European Championship place would still be in the Little Huhkaji’s own hands – also the group runners-up will at least reach the further qualification.
– The top team is facing off. There are a lot of good players and some top players that you have to be careful with, head coach Mika Lehkosuo know.
– The team is typical Romania in the sense that they play very well, especially defensively. As a team, they are aggressive and with a good rhythm find press moments as a whole team. That’s when they go on dangerous counterattacks after possession of the ball.
However, Lehkosuo sees that Romania is not an impossible team to stop.
– We are able to keep them out of good goal positions. They didn’t get incredibly good goal chances in Romania either. On the card were their goal positions, although some of those landslides always occur here and there during the game.
More than a year ago, Romania stretched to a 1–0 home win in the qualifiers, when from a corner kick Matei Ilie scored the winning goal in 90+8 minutes. Ville Kosken the send-off in the 78th minute came to an unfortunate end, because until then Finland had perhaps the best ten minutes of the match.
The prize for the best of the European Championship qualifying fall is a place in the final tournament in Slovakia 2025. After six matches played, Pikkuhuuhkajat is third in its qualifying group – three points behind Romania, which played the same number of matches, and one point behind Switzerland.
Jukkola’s dream debut
Oiva Jukkola became a wild card for Pikkuhuhkaji last week against Armenia after scoring two goals in a 3-1 away win. In addition to Jukkola, Tammela features three Ilves graduates in the Finnish U21 national team shirt: Naatan Skytt, Teemu Hytönen and Eetu Huuhtanen.
– It will certainly be a tough and important match for both. I believe that we are ready for it and with great success we can take care of the match, Jukkola emphasizes.
Jukkola has played his entire career in Tampere Ilves. He debuted in the Veikkausliiga in 2020. In the current season, the winger has scored four goals and provided five assists.
– With the help of a small home advantage, we are going to overthrow Romania. I expect that there will be a tougher opponent than Armenia. A better performance is needed to get three points, Jukkola estimates.
Before the Pikkuhuuhkajie camp in September and the match against Armenia, Jukkola had not been part of any youth national team. The national team debut could not have gone better.
– These matches are the beauty of the sport, and you can quickly advance in your career if you succeed in the right places. In a way, the matches are only the tip of the iceberg that is visible to the spectators. There is always a lot of dune in the background, reminds the 185-centimeter and 82-kilogram player.
– The national team has always been my dream, but it’s better to move forward one day at a time, because anything can happen in futsal, it’s been noticed along the way.
After the match in Romania, the qualification window for the Pikkuuahkajis will culminate in October, when they will face Switzerland away and Montenegro at home.