The Finnish women’s national football team Helmarit ended the national team break at the top of their group in the Nations League. Finland beat Romania when Eveliina Summanen scored a 1-0 winning goal from a penalty kick.
Riku Porvari,
Hinn Hirvonen
The Finnish women’s national football team Helmarit beat Romania 1–0 in their second match of the Nations League. The narrow victory brought Finland the important three points, thanks to which the team ends the national team break at the top of the B-league’s second division.
Before the match, the condition of the field in Bucharest made the Helmarii wonder. After the match, the head coach Marko Saloranta criticize the field emphatically.
– If we had lost, I wouldn’t say a word about the field. When we won, the pitch was… it’s bad. It’s never an explanation, but it certainly had an effect, Saloranta commented on the game platform.
According to the head coach, Finland was unable to dictate the rhythm of the game because of the pitch. Saloranta stated that, for example, passing was difficult. The Finnish goal scorer agreed with him Eveliina Summanen.
– The ball bounced quite a lot. There was no telling which way it would go. And you couldn’t be sure whether the pass would go on the leg, on the inside edge or what. However, it is the same for both teams, but at least I am not used to playing on such a field myself, Summanen described.
Summanen completed the winning goal from the penalty kick. Finland got a point in the 15th minute of the match, when the Romanian defender tore Finland apart Natalia Kuikan from shirt to shirt. Summanen certainly placed the ball in the lower left corner of the goal. The hit was enough for Finland to win.
Summanen estimated that Finland was able to create good enough goal chances, but the team did not manage to increase their lead. He stated that he missed better solutions from Finland in the last attacking third.
– I think we tried to finish a little too difficult places. We need to improve our finishing and, in general, that we are ready for second balls. It was a tight time, but I think it showed our mental edge when we fought for that victory.
Head coach Saloranta said that Finland had to beat Romania because the team had more chances to score than the opponent.
– There would have been more quality positions if we had gotten the final solutions to the level we are normally at.
Saloranta said that he is satisfied with many things at the end of the national team break. He said he was satisfied that Finland did not concede goals in the first matches of the Nations League. Both Slovakia and Romania managed to score twice against Finland.
– We had two goalkeepers who performed very well. There was a lot of good in the defense, and we were still able to rhythm the game with the attacks. I am satisfied (with the national team break) as a whole, and not only because there are six points on the scoreboard. This is not easy, even though we have beaten these teams earlier this year.
Finland has beaten Croatia and Romania once in their international matches this year, while Slovakia has been beaten twice.
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Nations League, B-League, Group 2
The results of the second division of the Nations League B-League:
Finland–Slovakia 4–0, Croatia–Romania 2–1, Finland– Romania 1–0, Slovakia–Croatia 4–0.
Finland’s upcoming matches:
27.10. Finland-Croatia
31.10. Croatia-Finland
30.11. Finland-Romania
5.12. Slovakia–Finland