Finnish girls under the age of 17 will play in the European Championship finals in May.
Sakari Lund,
Matti Lehtisaari
The Finnish football girls under the age of 17 advanced to the European Championships in May after a tremendous exciting phase.
Finland faced Slovakia and Iceland and Ireland collided at the same time. Before the matches, Finland and Iceland were at the top of the block at the same points and with the same goal difference.
The match between Finland and Slovakia was again 0-0 in the first half, but in the second half Finland scored as many as four goals. The goals were answered Milja Kiviranta penalty kick, Lotta Kalske, Ilona Walta and Ida Heikkinen. The times of the last three hits were 76, 82, and 85 minutes.
Finland won 4–0. The match in Iceland started a little late, so the Finnish players had to wait a little longer for it to end. Iceland finally won 4–1, so Finland went to the competition with a better goal difference of one goal.
– We are really happy because the road to the final tournament was so difficult. Only seven teams can qualify for the tournament. We had a pretty good block, so we knew this was realism, but not easy. This has been a great growth story, head coach Marko Saloranta said to Sport.
– We have mature young players. We were able to maintain restraint and score goals one at a time as the opponent began to squirm.
The Slovakia game was a strong performance for the team in an important place.
– This was by far the best game of this team. Slovakia has been a disgusting opponent. It also tells us about the nature of this team that we were able to play our best game in a place like this, Saloranta said.
Saloranta said waiting for Iceland’s outcome was exciting, even if Iceland needed two more goals.
– If Iceland had scored one more goal, everything would have been equal, but we had two warnings throughout the tournament and three of them, so we would have gone to the final tournament, Saloranta explained.
The place of the European Championship final tournament has been a rare treat in Finnish girls’ football.
– Four years ago, Finland entered the European Championships for 17-year-olds for the first time, so this is not everyday. This is a really big deal, Saloranta said.
The European Championships will be played from 3 to 15. May in Bosnia and Herzegovina.