Tonight’s opponent, Kazakhstan, is experiencing a tremendous upswing. Already in the Nations League, the team excelled in its C-level group and moved up to B-level, i.e. in the same league as Finland.
In the EC qualifiers, Kazakhstan lost to Slovenia, but beat Denmark, San Marino and Northern Ireland.
Against Denmark, Kazakhstan was still 0–2 down, but came away with a stunning 3–2 home win.
Group favorite Denmark is two points behind Finland and Kazakhstan. After the loss to Kazakhstan, Denmark drew against Slovenia in the summer.
Finland and Denmark meet in Helsinki on Sunday at 19:00.
Expert Miika Nuutinen’s three points for the Kazakhstan match:
1) Defending counter-attacks – Kazakhstan’s way of scoring goals is primarily counter-attacks. This is critical for Finland. Kazakhstan should not be given cheap counterattacks.
2) Kazakhstan’s aggressiveness – Kazakhstan basically defends deep in the block, but the aggressiveness is present. Players like to come off the block to the front zone to press. In this way, space opens up in the block behind the pressing player, and Finland must be able to use them.
3) Special Situations – Kazakhstan has long been a weak special situation team. Even in Finland, special situations are not a strength, but they could have a place of attack. Of those, Kazakhstan has conceded goals.
Read more: Statistics reveal the truth behind Kazakhstan’s rare winning streak