The Finnish women’s national football team erased their defeat in last week’s opening match of the EC qualifiers in style in Töölö.
Helmarit defeated Italy, one of the regular visitors of the prestigious competition, with 2–1 goals, opening both their points pot and goal account in the victory.
The winning goal went into the net from the follow-up situation of the corner kick. Replace the one who entered the field Oona Sevenius the shot finally went to the goal of the Italian captain Elena Linari from the leg.
The head coach Marko Saloranta described the loss to Norway as having brought “physical pain”. Now Saloranna had a different feeling in the blouse.
– When I look at our players celebrating on the field, I feel proud. And when I look at all this audience celebrating with them, I feel like my eyes are sweating, Saloranta described after the fight was stopped on Töölö’s artificial turf.
– All in all, this was a decent performance from us and I think I can say that we deserved to win today.
See Saloranta’s full interview below.
A better attacking Finland
The change to the Norway game was very clear.
In the opening period, Finland’s game especially showed a very clear change. As the tempo of the game was slower than the match played in Oslo, Finland was able to dominate and build the game.
However, Italy, which enjoyed counterattacks, seemed surprised by how Finland was now able to break its organized defense. That’s what Helmarit couldn’t do against Norway.
– Finland was already able to create more chances during the first half than in the entire Norway game combined. That’s why it was a little sad that the readings weren’t different in the opening half, ‘s football expert Hanna Ruohomaa described.
A clear change in the attacking game was also seen in terms of options. When against Norway, Finland almost completely failed Katariina Kosola up to challenges, both in Helsinki Emma Koiviston strengths in the attacking game were utilized. Right winger in the defensive phase Oona Siren came to the center of the field and left Koivisto space on the wing.
The cooperation of the top pair was also needed in the struggle. Against Italy, it was obtained from the start.
– That was announced in the Norwegian struggle and now Linda Sällström and Jutta Rantala responded to that cry with their joint play, Rantamaa cheered.
However, the half-time saw a bitter end. For a moment, Finland left too much for Italy’s midfield to rise and it opened up space to attack in a straight line. In the end, the attack ended with Italy’s goal, which bounced into the net Katariina Kosola from the leg.
Italy only came to “play”
The second period was better for Helmarei. Jutta Rantala’s story a sharp shot brought Finland level at the very beginning of the period. With a quarter of a quarter left in the actual game time, Finland scored the lead goal. When the home team defended its lead, at no point did it feel like the match was getting out of hand.
In addition to the goodness of the Helmari, the wisdom of Italy also had something to do with it. Italy, who knocked out Holland in their opening match, were surprisingly toothless in Töölö.
– This was even somewhat expected, that when Italy comes to this game with a terrible scalp, they will come against Finland with the idea that “this too will be taken care of”. However, in this game they completely lacked passion. They kind of just came to play, expert Essi Sainio characterized.
A certain lack of will was evident in the gestures of the Italians as the team chased the equalizer. Several situations ended with hand-wringing instead of dueling victories. The lack of care bothered the Italian players both in finishing and in creating scoring opportunities at the attacking end.
– I also liked what the Finns did in extra time chasing Italy. They played time away and knew their role and constantly what they had to do to win, Ruohomaa gushed.
All open in the block
Finland took a big win in many ways. The improvement in the appearance of the game and the correction of the problems was finally visible in the points pot, but in the group things remain kimurant.
After Tuesday’s games, each of the four teams in the group has one win and one loss. Finland holds the bottom of the group with the weakest goal difference.
Next, Helmarit gets perhaps the biggest challenge of the group, when it faces the Netherlands both at home and away in its qualifying matches in May.
– I don’t want to dampen anyone’s mood, but Finland has only played two games now. Holland is a high-quality team, and you can’t count on the fact that when Italy beat them, Finland will beat them too, Sainio reminded.
See the score summary from the Finland-Italy match below.