European Football Championship 2021 / Finland

This article covers the Finnish national team at the Pan-European Football Championship 2021 . It is the first time that the Finnish team has entered a European Championship finals.

qualification

For the qualification , the Finnish team was drawn into the group with Italy, Greece, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Armenia and Liechtenstein.

In total, national coach Markku Kanerva , who has been coaching the team after two short interim phases since 2017, deployed 28 players, of which Glen Kamara , Robin Lod , Teemu Pukki and Joona Toivio played all ten games. Goalkeepers Lukas Hradecky and Pyry Soiri had nine missions each . Leo Väisänen played his first international match in the qualifying matches.

The top scorer with ten goals, including three from a penalty, was Teemu Pukki. Their first international goal was scored by Benjamin Källman (to the 2-0 final in the first game against Liechtenstein) and Jasse Tuominen (to the 1-0 lead in the 3-0 win in the second game against Liechtenstein). A total of six players contributed to 16 qualifying goals.

Games

date	Venue	opponent	Result	Goal scorers
03/23/2019	Udine	Italy	0: 2 (0: 1)	Nicolò Barella (7th), Moise Kean (74th)
March 26, 2019	Yerevan	Armenia	2: 0 (1: 0)	Fredrik Jensen (14th), Pyry Soiri (78th)
06/08/2019	Tampere	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2: 0 (0: 0)	Teemu Pukki (56th, 68th)
06/11/2019	Vaduz	Liechtenstein	2: 0 (1: 0)	Teemu Pukki (37.), Benjamin Källman (57.)
05.09.2019	Tampere	Greece	1: 0 (0: 0)	Teemu Pukki (52nd / Elfm.)
09/08/2019	Tampere	Italy	1: 2 (0: 0)	Ciro Immobile (59.), Teemu Pukki (72./Elfm.), Jorginho (79./Elfm.)
October 12, 2019	Zenica	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1: 4 (0: 2)	Izet Hajrović (29.), Miralem Pjanić (37./Elfm., 58.), Armin Hodžić (73.), Joel Pohjanpalo (79.)
October 15, 2019	Turku	Armenia	3: 0 (1: 0)	Fredrik Jensen (31st), Teemu Pukki (61st, 88th)
11/15/2019	Helsinki	Liechtenstein	3: 0 (1: 0)	Jasse Tuominen (21.), Teemu Pukki (64./Elfm., 75.)
11/18/2019	Marousi	Greece	1: 2 (1: 0)	Teemu Pukki (27th), Petros Mantalos (47th), Konstantinos Galanopoulos (70th)

Closing table

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Italy	10	10	0	0	037: 400	+33	30th
2.	Finland	10	6th	0	4th	016:100	+6	18th
3.	Greece	10	4th	2	4th	012:140	−2	14th
4th	Bosnia and Herzegovina	10	4th	1	5	020:170	+3	13
5.	Armenia	10	3	1	6th	014:250	−11	10
6th	Liechtenstein	10	0	2	8th	002:310	−29	02

Finals

Finland had initially applied with the Helsinki Olympic Stadium to host group and knockout games, but then withdrew. At the draw on November 30, 2019, Finland was placed in Pot 4 and could be drawn into any group. Ultimately, Finland was drawn into the only group that had already been made up of three teams before the draw, the two hosts of games Denmark and Russia as well as FIFA world number leader Belgium. Because in pot 1, in addition to the Belgians, only the Ukraine was placed as the non-hosting team and they could not be in a group with Russia, the Belgians were assigned to the group with Denmark and Russia before the draw. The record against Denmark is just as negative with 39 defeats and ten draws and wins as against Russia, against which there have only been four defeats so far. Against Belgium, however, the balance is still positive with four wins and four draws and three defeats. The last defeat against the Belgians came in October 1968, followed by four wins and three draws. The Finns last won against the Danes in September 1966, after which there were 16 defeats and seven draws.

If the Finnish team wins the group, they would play against the third in Group A, D, E or F in Bilbao - subject to the fact that the venues are retained - and in second place one day earlier in the first round of 16 in Amsterdam against the second in Group A, e.g. . B. Switzerland. If they were one of the top four group thirds, either the group E winner with Spain or the group F winner with Germany, world champions France or defending champions Portugal would be opponents in the round of 16, where they would then play in Bucharest or Glasgow .

Group games

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Denmark	0	0	0	0	000-000	± 0	00
2.	Finland	0	0	0	0	000-000	± 0	00
3.	Belgium	0	0	0	0	000-000	± 0	00
4th	Russia	0	0	0	0	000-000	± 0	00

June 12, 2021, 6 p.m. in Copenhagen
Denmark	-	Finland	-: - (- :–)
June 16, 2021, 3 p.m. in Saint Petersburg
Finland	-	Russia	-: - (- :–)
June 21, 2021, 9:00 p.m. in Saint Petersburg
Finland	-	Belgium	-: - (- :–)