That being said, while it’s difficult to score on any team that takes no chances offensively and while Finland seem to have dominated the game, one would hope a Finland team that showed such spark against Germany would put one or two past Azerbaijan in the course of regular play. Hopefully the history and challenge will inspire Finland to finish more chances in Moscow.

The game was tough, as expected. Everyone saw who were the better team, but Azerbaijan kept defending and it was always going to be difficult to spell out the difference. The fact that the goal was scored on a penalty doesn’t bear any significance, it was a deserved goal and only a home win would have been a justified result.

Not totally sure about Eremenko. He wasn’t quite like in the Germany game, giving the ball away needlessly on a couple of occasions. The King didn’t do anything magical, but he did what was important; calming the team down with simple passing and his ability to hold on to the ball. That was exactly what was needed as Azerbaijan looked increasingly dangerous at that stage. And yes, I did like the reception he got.

P.s. The chanting whilst the Azeri national song was played was totally unintentional (even though Mr. Järviö from Helsingin Sanomat for some reason seems to think otherwise).. The fan section simply didn’t hear that the band had started to play.