“A lot of these were already seen at the European Championships”

The Finnish women’s national football team’s dreams of next year’s World Cup were dashed when Ireland won their home match 1–0.

The loss means that Helmarit is third in Group A, and next Tuesday’s home match against Sweden is no longer at stake in terms of a place in the World Cup. Finland can drop to fourth in the group if it loses to Sweden and Slovakia surprises Ireland.

Ireland also no longer has a contribution to the last match, the trip to Slovakia. Ireland will definitely be second in the group and will therefore play later in the World Cup play-offs. Ireland has never played in a prestigious tournament. Finland has played in the European Championships four times, but never in the World Championships.

The deciding goal of the match came in the 54th minute of the game. Midfielder representing Brighton Megan Connolly gave a free kick far from the Finnish goal, almost half the field.

Finnish captain, goalkeeper Tinja-Riikka Korpela went against the centering ball, but was the first one to do so in the opening period by Ruesha Littlejohn replaced by Lily Agg.

In the situation, we saw both a poor response from Finland’s experienced goalkeeper and weak communication from the defense in the penalty area. The crowning glory of the summer European Championships, i.e. defending the penalty area, came up fatally again.

– Once again, in the defense of boxing in Finland, it is unclear when communicating who is in control of whose control the opponent’s player is. Not under anyone’s control. We already saw quite a lot of these at the European Championships, criticized Urheilu’s expert Mari Savolainen.

Savolainen signed that if the goalkeeper goes to meet such a ball, he must also be able to handle it.

You can see the painting from the main picture of the story.

The match was Finland’s first as a temporary head coach Marko Saloranta under the heel of. Saloranta, who had been piloting the U17 girls for a long time, replaced him Anna Signeulin after the summer EC tournament.

In Finland’s starting line-up against Ireland, the striker who got less playing time under Signeul was seen Jutta Rantala and midfield Heidi Kollanen mixed Olga Ahtinen. Part of the reason for the changes was that the midfield Emmi Alanen and Adelina Engman had to be left out of the originally named group of players.

There are five new names in Finland’s World Cup qualifying group (Emmi and Oona Siren, Joanna Tynnilä, Emma Peuhkurinen and Anni Miettunen), but they didn’t get to the field yet. It is assumed that the debutants will be seen in the Sweden match, where neither team will have a stake in the competition place.

The first period started strongly with Finland’s dominance. In the very first minutes, Finland received a corner kick, which resulted in a goal Anna Westerlund was able to shoot from five meters. The bet, however, shielded the defenders in front of the goal.

Before the match, Ireland was second in the qualifying group, one point ahead of Finland. It was clear that a draw against Finland would be a satisfactory result for Ireland.

It was also reflected in Ireland’s performance. Ireland allowed Finland to bring the ball into the half of the field before the slightest press.

For the second time, Helmarit was close to the opening goal, after less than half an hour had been played. Ahtinen opened a long ball to the left wing. Kollanen proceeded to the concentration point. Focus ended For Ria Ölingwhose susaisu went straight For Linda Sällström. Sällström’s left-footed drive still took a bounce from the defender, but the Irish keeper Courtney Brosnan stretched out to tackle.

Towards the end of the first period, Ireland was able to use their strong weapon, fast counter-attacks. Korpela had to stretch to fight like that by Denise O’Sullivan to the butt like by Heather Payne to bet.

However, we went into the break in a scoreless situation. Finland had controlled the ball, but found little ways to get Ireland’s defense to a real point.

– This is not enough now. Players need to be able to step up and find controlled progressions to the other side of Ireland’s midfield line. They have been able to create too few, Urheiluin’s expert Savolainen lamented during the break.

Savolainen said that he was satisfied with how Finland began to dominate the game events.

– Finnish players are skilled enough for international football. They have features through which the game can be built.

In the second period, Ireland got their lead after less than ten minutes had been played. After that, the picture of the game didn’t change much.

Finland kept the ball in the middle zone, but ended up constantly sending long, high balls into Ireland’s territory after that. The Irish defense handled them without any problems. Correspondingly, quick counterattacks were seen from Ireland, and Korpela, for example, had to bend to a foot block when Payne ran into a half-pass.

– Finland strives to create goal chances, Ireland creates goal chances, stated Savolainen.

Finland made substitutions and in the end there were practically four attackers on the field: Jenny Danielsson, Linda Sällström, San Francisco and Jutta Rantala. Danielsson was the strongest and led Finland’s attack in the final moments, but even the equalizing goal, which would have kept the dreams of further qualification alive, was not accomplished.

Finland will face Sweden in the final match of the qualifiers on Tuesday, September 6. In Tampere. Live broadcast on Teema channel and Areena from 18:45.