The Finnish women’s national football team plays its last match before the European Championship qualifiers starting in the spring.
Matti Lehtisaari,
Samu Saatsi
Finland and Scotland will meet in the final of the women’s Pinatar Cup at 15:05. Areena’s broadcast from Murcia, Spain starts at 14:55.
The Finnish women’s national football team takes on Scotland in the final match of the Pinatar Cup in Spain. An even struggle can be expected, as Scotland is 25th and Finland 27th in the International Football Association’s ranking.
The last time Finland and Scotland met was in July of last year in the A national match played in Tampere. At that time, Helmarit experienced a 1–2 loss.
– Scotland has top players who play in tough clubs. In the July match, their pressing and quick attacks caused us a lot of difficulties in the first period. The second period was then completely ours, and we should have dug out of that game more than the loss of a goal, piloting Helmareita Marko Saloranta times the previous encounter.
The head coach hints at bold experiments
Finland cleared its way to the final of the tournament with a 1–0 win over Slovenia on Saturday. Jutta Rantala scored Helmarie’s winning goal, but the match turned out to be difficult for Finland. Helmarii had room to improve for today’s match against Scotland.
– It would be nice to end the tournament closer to our own level. Our previous match was left to dig, even though we won it. The hope is to raise our level, even though we will face a really tough team, Saloranta predicts.
Saloranta hints that bold experiments may also be seen.
– We are trying certain things because this is our last match before the EC qualifiers. We are trying out some players or something in the game that we haven’t done much, Saloranta revealed.
Helmarit will have to go to Tuesday’s match without Lotta Lindström. Lindström, who fell ill after the match against Slovenia, is already in the recovery phase, but the striker will not be in match strength on Tuesday.
The groups for the EC qualifiers will be drawn on March 5
Finland’s opponents for the upcoming EC qualifiers will be determined in the group draw organized on Tuesday, March 5. The EC qualifying games will start only four weeks later, so the preparation time will be very short.
Head coach Saloranta sees that Helmarit is on the right track.
– We have taken a big leap in the special situations of the defensive and offensive game. Our defensive game has been poor overall and at best our press has worked well. Our playing on the ball has been average, Saloranta estimates.