The Finnish national football team met Kazakhstan in the European Championship qualifying match at the Olympic Stadium. Despite a good start and Finland’s dominance, Kazakhstan took advantage of their position and won the match.
Jaakko Servo,
Joel Sippola
Finland’s position in the European Championship qualifiers worsened even more when Kazakhstan went to the Olympic Stadium for a 2–1 away win. Huuhkajat had won all five previous meetings between the countries.
Huuhkaj’s head coach Markku Kanerva apologized to the Finnish supporters who arrived after the match.
– Yes, this takes a lot! For my part, I want to apologize to the audience that supported us. But sports and football are like this. Of course, now is the time for a rigorous analysis of what can be done better in the future.
“Very disappointed feeling”
In the first half of the game, the pace of the game started Robert Taylor was visibly disappointed with his team’s performance in the post-match interview. Taylor was able to give a free kick in the 27th minute of the game and shot the ball past the Kazakhstan goalkeeper like a rocket to Igor Shatsky. The goal was the second hit by Taylor, who represents Inter Miami in the club team, in the A national team. More than three years had passed since the first goal.
– We had chances to score and win this game. Really disappointed feeling right now, Taylor said after the game.
– The disappointment is huge. The first 60 minutes were okay. Should have scored 2-0 and the game would have been over. They (Kazakhstan) didn’t have any places. In the second half, Huuhkajie’s goalkeeper started to lose control Lukas Hradecky said in turn after the match ended.
The second half started with Finland building scoring chances. in the 57th minute of the game Daniel Håkans received a perfect vertical pass from Taylor, but the 22-year-old Håkans’ shot missed the right side of the goal.
– Shit, Håkans described the game show on ‘s live broadcast.
– Alone through and terribly stressed. I don’t know what I did. A really big place and there would have been a chance to make it 2-0 and there would have been three points.
Finland’s defeat was a shock and a shocking disappointment for head coach Markku Kanerva as well.
– It really didn’t go according to plan. We were taken to the canvas in Slovenia and now it seemed that we are about to take off from there. Then there was a really good knockout blow, Kanerva assessed the performance.
Before tonight’s match, it was already known that the European Championships place is no longer in Huuhkajie’s own hands. Kazakhstan was also tied in Group H with Finland before tonight’s game (12). Finland should have won tonight’s match as well as its last two qualifying matches in November, so that a direct EC tournament place could have been even practically possible. And even this would not necessarily have been enough.
In these moments, the match was decided
At about 70 minutes into the game, Kazakhstan was awarded a penalty kick by the Huuhkaja defender by Richard Jensen from an unlucky sleight of hand. The spot kick that equalized for Kazakhstan was ruled out after a VAR review. Baktiyor Zainutdinov was able to shoot from the spot to equalize 1–1 for the visiting team.
Just before the 90 minutes of the game had been played, Kazakhstan received a corner kick and Bakhtiyor Zaynutdinov headed home to give Kazakhstan a 2–1 lead, much to the dismay of the fans.
The games go on
Huuhkaj still has a chance for the European Championships, when the place in the further qualification in March is certain. The matter was confirmed on Sunday when Scotland secured its own place in the competition.
– Now we just have to gather ourselves and start preparing for the playoff games in March. The first preparatory event will be the two games in November, head coach Kanerva comments on the future.
In a month’s time, Finland will face Northern Ireland in the last European Championship qualifying matches of Group H, which Finland managed to defeat in the first meeting of the group with a score of 1–0. Three days after the Northern Ireland match, San Marino will face away, which Finland managed to defeat in June at the Olympic Stadium with a crushing score of 6–0.
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