When the 1-3 home loss to England is the Huuhkajie’s best of the year, if not the best match so far, it is a dark situation in Finland, writes Urheilu’s Samu Saatsi.
Samu Saatsi sports reporter
In the end, no miracles were seen in Helsinki.
The Finnish national football team lost to England at the Olympic Stadium 1–3 and continues in the Nations League without a win.
Huhkajie’s performance in the opening episode was at best very good and overall better than expected.
Finland even made England’s attack unwise at times with its press and collective play, as ‘s football experts Miika Nuutinen and Toni Koskela expressed in the studio.
There was also an edge in attacking as Finland attacked from wide, causing problems for the guests. However, individual mistakes caused Jack Grealish the opening goal, but Finland was not bad, on the contrary.
But, but. Even though there were flashes of light in the second period, Finland’s good performance did not last the full match again. The avalanche of superstars from England’s exchange finally broke their wings, and the visiting team inoculated Huuhkaj for weak defending twice.
Finland again tasted bitter lime, also in the sense that With Fredrik Jensen was the best place to tie the game before England took away Finland’s last chances.
Arttu Hoskonen pat on the back. He took from 2001 until Aki Riihilahten held the title as the latest Finnish men’s national team player to score against England.
It is clear, however, that the now resounding criticism will continue until the Huuhkajat succeeds in winning.
In Kanerva’s era, Finland has never lost five matches in a row. Already the fourth defeat that came with the previous match against Ireland was its own record.
The last time the Finnish men’s national football team played in such a terrible losing streak was in 1980–81, when Esko Malmin The skippered Suomi ship suffered five World Cup qualifying defeats in a row.
Despite the manly performance against England, another question arises about the Huuhkajie’s game. Where has this Finland really been against Ireland and Greece, when once it can beat the world’s best like this?
Markku Kanerva would certainly say something about the process here.
Finland managed to create clearly more scoring chances than before and was able to steal the ball high in its attacking area. It was successful in its construction and defended very well at its best.
Still, its performance fell short, but with this same model, it would have gotten more out of it against basically more even opponents. At least it could have been a good performance lasting a full match.
It sounds quite sad that the 1-3 loss to England, which did not perform in any way special, was Finland’s best game in 2024. That’s how ‘s expert summed it up, for example Toni Koskela after the match is over.
– The best game of the year from Finland. This year has included a lot of games and really really bad performances considering the level of the opponent. Be that as it may, the opponent was not at his best and sought victory with minimal effort, Koskela stated.
The Finnish supporters gave their appreciation to the Huuhkajie’s game performance after the match. After thanking the team’s supporters, the fans again offered their opinions on the continuation of Markku Kanerva. “For the last time, Markku Kanerva”, was sung in the stadium.
Supporters also waved their shoes in protest, as they did after the loss to Ireland.
There has been speculation about the sacking of Kerenva for long enough. It would be time to end the rotation, because these results no longer have the prerequisites to continue.