A disaster that the Huhkajat created themselves – the Slovenian giant dealt a fatal blow to the naive team’s dream

Finland’s race dreams took a really hard hit, and nothing is certain anymore. The saddest thing is that Finland did a lot of everything by itself, writes journalist Samu Saatsi from Ljubljana.

LJUBLJANA.

“Sheeeeeshko! Shhhh! Shhhh!”

The name of their star player, shouted by the Slovenian audience in a deep voice, remains the stuff of nightmares for the players of the Finnish men’s national football team.

Huuhkajat suffered a defeat against Slovenia in the biggest football game of the year, which could have deprived Finland of a place in the European Championships. Despite all the good performances that Huuhkajat has performed in these EC qualifiers.

On Saturday night in Ljubljana, the home crowd was boiling with joy. The giant tip of the Slovenians is the architect of joy Benjamin Sesko. The big, fast and skilled striker was a nightmare to contain for the Finnish defense. Šeško’s evening was crowned by a ferocious workload, which (besides the goals) was rewarded by the Slovenian crowd with the just-mentioned storm of screams when he was substituted after only an hour of play.

The top player, who received a wound on his head, had to leave the field surprisingly early. Slovenian head coach Matjaz Kek confirmed at the international press conference after the match that the change was necessary. Šeško’s playing in the upcoming Northern Ireland match is not certain.

One thing instead is. In addition to the fact that Slovenia was good, Finland was really bad in the opening period. It invited Slovenia to break into the crevice of that country.

Read also: Did the Huhkajie’s dream crumble in this totally miserable episode? Crushing verdict from the experts: “One hundred to zero, men against boys”

A disaster that Finland created itself

– This was a collective catastrophic failure. Especially when it comes to a place like this, it was one of the biggest games in Finnish history and we played so naively.

Finland’s captain Lukas Hradecky the comment after the game spoke volumes. Frustration and annoyance shone from the normally cheerful Hradecky’s face.

In short: Huuhkajat was extremely weak in the opening half of the match. It was expected that Slovenia would attack the Finnish defenders like a wolf. On the other hand, it was not expected that Finland would completely rot under the pressure.

The quarterbacking of the whiners stuck like a wall and ran away busy. On top of the deal, Finland gave Šeško and his top pair Andraž Šporar mess around for free in the attack. The latter got the penalty kick that led to the first goal of the match in the opening period.

The opening half of the match was the worst for Finland in years. A similar uproar comes to mind from the fall 2019 European Championship qualifying match against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Zenica.

At that time, everything turned beautiful, the first European Championship place. Even though Finland missed the chance to win the competition, it still made it to the prestigious competition.

It’s the same situation now. Slovenia took hold of the competition place and Finland has to rely on the help of others.

This time the end just doesn’t seem as beautiful.

Hoping for miracles

After all, Finland has to lean its hopes on real miracles. It’s not even enough for the squeamish that Denmark beat Slovenia at home, but they also have to lose points to others.

It should be noted that Slovenia did not seem as dominant in the second half as it was in the opening period. Finland’s exchanges worked, but it was no savior.

Slovenia’s next opponent is Northern Ireland in the match to be played on Tuesday. Belfast is a difficult place for visiting teams and many big countries have also dropped point pots there.

However, there is no need to build great faith on it, if Slovenia continues in the same way as on Saturday. Northern Ireland’s visit to Ljubljana also gives direction, where the islanders, who defended poorly, got a 2-4 score on their backs.

The last match for Slovenia is against Kazakhstan at home. Again, Kazakhstan is ready to surprise, but is it so ready to surprise that it would take points from Slovenia?

Lots of big hopes, lots of big questions.

At the same time, Finland must handle each of its remaining matches in style to win.

It’s really sad if the Huuhkajat team’s dream of the Games, which played great qualifiers, melts into such a personal failure. Embarrassing and potentially fatal shot in terms of qualifying. And especially sad for the more than a thousand-strong Finnish supporters who, despite everything, made a noise during the shouting storm of the Slovenians in Ljubljana.