Finnish national soccer team / European championships

Finland

Rank:	not yet placed
Balance sheet
0 European Championship games 0 wins 0 draws 0 defeats
successes
European Championship
Participation in the finals	0 ( first : 2021 )
Best results	Qualification ( 2021 )
(As of November 15, 2019)

The article contains a detailed description of the Finnish national football team for men in European championships and the qualifications for them. Finland qualified for the finals of the European Championship for the first time in 2019.

Overview

Finland was able to qualify for the final round of the European Championship in November 2019 for the first time.

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1960	France	not participated
1964	Spain	not participated
1968	Italy	not qualified				failed in the qualification at the Soviet Union
1972	Belgium	not qualified				failed in the qualification to Romania , which could not qualify either.
1976	Yugoslavia	not qualified				failed in qualification against the Netherlands .
1980	Italy	not qualified				failed in qualification to Greece
1984	France	not qualified				failed in qualification to Portugal
1988	BR Germany	not qualified				failed in qualification to Denmark
1992	Sweden	not qualified				in qualifying failed to holders the Netherlands
1996	England	not qualified				failed in qualification to Russia and Scotland
2000	Netherlands and Belgium	not qualified				in the qualification of defending champion Germany and Turkey failed.
2004	Portugal	not qualified				failed in qualification to Italy and Wales , which could not qualify either.
2008	Austria and Switzerland	not qualified				failed in qualification to Poland and Portugal
2012	Poland and Ukraine	not qualified				failed in qualification against the Netherlands and Sweden
2016	France	not qualified				failed in the qualification to Northern Ireland , Romania and Hungary
2021	Europe	qualified				Finland was able to qualify for the first time. In the final round, the Finns face Belgium, Denmark and Russia.

EM 1960

Finland did not want to take part in the first European football championship in 1960, which was still called the “European Cup of Nations”.

EM 1964

Four years later, more teams than 1960 wanted to take part, but Finland did not take part for financial reasons.

EM 1968

Finland then took part for the first time in qualifying for the third European Championship. In a group with the Soviet Union , Greece and Austria , one point each could only be won in the first game against the Austrians (0-0) and against Greece. With four defeats in the other games, only the last place was occupied. Group winners Soviet Union defeated Hungary in the quarter-finals and thus qualified for the finals in Italy and ultimately came fourth.

European Championship 1972

Finland returned to qualifying, but failed in the group stage to Romania , Czechoslovakia and Wales . Finland could only win a point in the first game at 1-1 in Czechoslovakia and was bottom of the group. Group winners Romania then failed in the quarter-finals after three games against Hungary.

EM 1976

In 1976 the final round was held for the last time with four teams. Finland took part in the qualification again, but failed in the group stage to runner-up Netherlands , third place in the World Cup, Poland and the 1968 European champion Italy . Finland could only win a point in the goalless draw in Italy and was bottom of the group. Group winners Netherlands then prevailed against neighboring Belgium in the quarter-finals.

EM 1980

Four years later, Finland met Greece, Hungary and the Soviet Union in qualifying for the European Championship in Italy, which was held for the first time with eight teams . Finland and Hungary each won and lost two games and drew twice. But since the Greeks won again, they were able to qualify for the finals for the first time. The Finns only got third place ahead of the Soviet Union.

EM 1984

In qualifying for the European Championship in France in 1984, the Finns had to compete in Group 2 against Portugal , the Soviet Union and Poland . Finland couldn't win a game and only won a point in Poland with a 1-1 draw, so they were last.

EM 1988

For the European Championship in Germany Finland could not qualify again. In a group with Denmark , Czechoslovakia and Wales, the Finns only won the home game against Czechoslovakia, which thereby missed the finals, and took a point in their first game against Wales. Since the other games were lost, it was only enough for last place.

EM 1992

In qualifying for the European Championships in 1992 , for which only the group winners could qualify, Finland met defending champions Netherlands, as well as Portugal, Greece and Malta . The Finns could only win the home game against Malta. There were also four draws against Portugal, Malta, the Netherlands and Greece. Due to the defeats in Greece, the Netherlands and Portugal, it was only enough for fourth place.

EM 1996

For the European Championship 1996 in England, which was held for the first time with 16 teams, the Finns had to qualify against Russia , which competed for the first time as an independent team for qualification, Scotland , Greece, the Faroe Islands and San Marino . The Finns won and lost five games each and finished fourth in the group with 18:18 goals. It was not enough to qualify for the finals.

EM 2000

For the EM 2000 the Finns had to qualify in a group with defending champions Germany , Turkey , Northern Ireland and the Republic of Moldova . Finland started with a 3-2 win against Moldova, then lost 1-0 in Northern Ireland. It was then possible to win 3-1 in Turkey, after defeats in Germany and at home against Turkey, a goalless draw in Moldova and a home defeat against Germany, the final 4-1 win against Northern Ireland was only enough for third place behind Germany and Turkey, who qualified for the finals through the group runners-up playoffs.

EM 2004

In qualifying for the 2004 European Championship, Iceland met Italy, Wales, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro from mid-qualification) and Azerbaijan . Finland started with a 2-0 home loss to Wales and then beat Azerbaijan 3-0. Defeats in Yugoslavia and Italy followed. The second leg against the team now playing as Serbia and Montenegro could be won 3-0, but a 2-1 home defeat against Italy and a 1-1 win in Wales were not enough to qualify despite a 2-1 win in Azerbaijan , since only fourth place was occupied.

EM 2008

Four years later Finland had to qualify for the next European Championship against Poland, Portugal, Serbia , Belgium , Kazakhstan , Armenia and Azerbaijan . The Finns started furiously and won 3-1 against eventual group winners Poland. This was followed by two draws against Portugal and Armenia and wins in Kazakhstan and against Armenia, but then lost 2-0 at home to Serbia. After home wins against Belgium and Kazakhstan, the last three games in Serbia, at home against Poland and in Belgium were all goalless draws. So in the end three points were missing to finish second in the group and the Finns missed qualifying for the finals as fourth.

EM 2012

Four years later, the Finns could not qualify again . In a group with the Netherlands, Sweden , Hungary, the Republic of Moldova and San Marino, they started with three defeats before the first win in the 8-0 win against San Marino and the second leg in San Marino was also won 1-0. In the remaining games, only a 4-1 victory against Moldova and a point in Hungary through a goalless draw could be won. With that, the Finns missed the European Championship finals as fourth in the group.

EM 2016

For the first time, 24 teams took part in the European Championship. For the drawing of the qualifying groups , which took place on February 23, 2014, Finland was only placed in Pot 4 and was drawn to the group with Greece. Other opponents were Northern Ireland, Romania, Hungary and the Faroe Islands.

The first two in the group qualified directly for the European Championship finals. Had the third-placed team finished third in the group, they would also have qualified directly. The remaining third in the group played four other participants in the playoffs.

Finland started the qualification with a 3-1 win over the Faroe Islands and then reached a 1-1 at home against group head Greece. This was followed by defeats at home against Romania, in Hungary and Northern Ireland and at home against Hungary. Although they only lost once with a two-goal difference, the following 1-0 victories in Greece and against the Faroe Islands could not turn the tide and in the end it was only enough to two 1-1 draws against Northern Ireland and in Romania. As fourth in the group, both direct qualification and the playoffs were missed.

EM 2021

The European Championship 2021 will not be held in one country, but in different venues in Europe, with the final in London's Wembley Stadium. Finland had initially applied to host the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki , but then withdrew the application. As the host, the Finns would not be directly qualified and had to qualify like all other teams. Opponents in the qualification were the one-time European Championship winners Italy and Greece, as well as Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Liechtenstein , who like Finland have never qualified for a final round. The Finns started with a 2-0 defeat in Italy, but were then able to win against the other group opponents without conceding a goal. In the second half of the qualification they started with a 1: 2 home defeat against Italy and a 1: 4 defeat in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With two 3-0 home wins against Armenia and Liechtenstein they were able to qualify prematurely as second in the group on the penultimate match day and thus for the first time for the finals, whereby they also benefited from the fact that Greeks, Armenians and Bosnians took points from each other. On the last day of the match they were able to afford a 2-1 defeat in Greece. The top scorer in the qualifying group was Teemu Pukki with ten goals, who scored 5/8 of the Finnish goals.

At the draw on November 30, 2019, the Finns were drawn from the group previously occupied by Belgium, Denmark and Russia. On March 17, 2020, the EM was postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic .

Games

All EM games
No.	date	Result	opponent		venue	occasion	Remarks
	June 12, 2021		Denmark	A.	Copenhagen ( DNK )	Group game
	June 16, 2021		Russia	A.	Saint Petersburg ( RUS )	Group game
	June 21, 2021		Belgium	*	Saint Petersburg ( RUS )	Group game

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Draw for the EURO qualification: Pot 1 in focus. In: uefa.com. UEFA , February 20, 2014, accessed March 11, 2014 .