Helmarit will face Slovakia in the Nations League on Tuesday, December 5, in its last match of the year. will show the match live on TV2 and Areena from 19:45.
The Finnish women’s national football team Helmarit secured the victory in their group of the Nations League on Thursday. Finland crushed Romania 6–0 in the wintry weather of Turku.
Finland’s evening speech was made a lot easier by the fact that Romania’s defender Antonia Bratu received a red card in the 27th minute of the match. Bratu knocked over the one who was breaking through by Linda Sällström near the penalty area.
– Romania was really disorganized, and the team didn’t know how to play underpowered. It was a really big help for Finland. I believe that Helmarit would have managed the match even without a red card, but it’s better this way, says Urheilu’s football expert Hanna Ruohomaa.
Oona Siren was creative and unpredictable
The entire Finnish team probably played throughout the match, but a few players caught the attention of expert Ruohomaa. Especially the midfielder who was in the starting line-up for the first time gets fumigated Oona Siren.
– To be honest, I was quite surprised when Siren was at the opening. He exceeded my expectations in this match.
Siren played a decisive role in Finland’s first two goals and assisted Linda Sällström’s 3–0 goal as well Anni Hartikainen 6–0 hit.
– Siren was everywhere all the time. He made a lot of right decisions. He was creative and unpredictable – exactly the kind of player that Finnish football needs.
Siren, 22, played in the completed league season for Kuopio Palloseura, which won the National League by a clear margin of seven points. Ruohomaa states that he watched Siren’s matches a lot during the season, but still the player from Vantaa stepped into the limelight.
– I feel that he stood out even more now than in the National League. I was pleasantly surprised. They played really well together Ria Öling’s with. It seemed that Oona’s playing freed Ria. You could see from Öling’s goal ventilation that he was doing well now.
Important ranking points affect further qualification
Thanks to the group win, Finland moves up to the tougher A-league and will also play in that group in next year’s EC qualifiers. The B-league group win also means that Finland has secured its place in the European Championship further qualification.
In the European Championship qualifiers, the two best teams from the four groups of the A-League advance directly to the 2025 European Championship. The teams that finished third and fourth in the A-League advance to the further qualification, where they will face the C-League team.
Finland has one more Nations League match ahead of them, when the team faces Slovakia away on Tuesday, December 5. Finland does not need points in its group, but aims for ranking points that are important for the future.
The final ranking in the Nations League will determine the opponent for further qualification, if Finland does not qualify from the qualifying group of the A-League directly to the European Championships.
After the group stage, the ranking will be determined in the following order: position in the group, higher number of points, better goal difference, higher number of goals scored and so on.
Finland has won all their matches, but Ireland, who played one match less, is in a similar mood.
Finland and Ireland can therefore win their respective groups with equal points. At the moment, the goal difference and goals scored are solidly on Finland’s side. Finland has scored 16 goals and has not conceded a single one. Ireland’s goal difference is 13–1.
The head coach’s “rejuvenation surgery” has been restrained
Therefore, Finland should not play in the final match of the year on the second field, so to speak. Expert Ruohomaa says that he would have liked to see turnover on the field in the Nations League matches earlier.
– On Thursday, the first player change was made in the 67th minute of the game in a 3–0 lead against Romania, which was underpowered.
Ruohomaa estimates that Finland’s player base has been quite established in the Nations League, despite being the head coach Marko Saloranta has renewed the team.
– I have been waiting for new players to be introduced in the Nations League matches. There has been a lot of talk about Saloranta doing rejuvenation surgery, but he hasn’t really had to do it, says Ruohomaa.
Ruohomaa reminds that, for example Anna Auvinen, Essi Sainio, Anna Westerlund and Tuija Hyyrynen ended their careers. Thus, the Finnish team had to make room for new players.
– Of course, Saloranta has dropped a few players from the national team ring, but he has not made such a big rejuvenation surgery to the playing lineup. Jutta Rantala and Katariina Kosola are perhaps the only new players.
Ruohomaa hopes that the starting line-up for the match against Slovakia will include players who have not been given as much responsibility this year. He still emphasizes that the experiments should have been seen earlier.
– It’s also not good, considering the continuation, that in the last game the entire starting line-up is completely thrown out.
– Now the decisive thing is which countries Finland gets as opponents for training matches before the start of the A-League EC qualifiers.
Helmarit will face Slovakia in the Nations League on Tuesday, December 5, in its last match of the year. will show the match live on TV2 and Areena from 19:45.