Nordic Football News

HBL had a column from Christoffer Herberts this morning, riffing on the idea that Wales and Finland are so similar as to be almost mirror images of each other. They both have a lot of injuries, they’ve both struggled to qualify for a major tournament for over 50 years, they both sruggle with a dominant other sport on their home territory. They’ve followed different strategies recently though, and Wales’s startlingly youthful side showed the pros and cons of this strategy in the first half.

For a while after the kick-off it appeared as though the Finnish defenders were too static, too slow, too old to keep up. Craig Bellamy, Simon Davies and Gareth Bale whizzed past the full backs without a second glance, but their crosses evaded forwards, were intercepted by defenders (or on one occasion, central midfielder Markus Heikkinen, dropping deep like we had hoped they would not) or were plucked out of the air by Finnish ‘keeper Jussi Jääskeläinen. When a cross was finally met by a Welsh head, Collins put it straight at Jääskeläinen.

The Finns were playing in front of the Welsh back four, however, ignoring the channel-working so beloved of British sides. Bellamy’s role was roughly analogous to Litmanen’s, dropping deep to pick the ball and create something, but they had very different approaches to their task. Bellamy dribble, fast, and hope to play in wingers or overlapping fullbacks, while Litmanen sat back, waited, took an extra second or two before picking his pass. The Welsh strategy created more openings in the first half, but they failed to capitalise on any of them and Finland took the lead just before half time with a well-worked goal.

Jonatan Johansson started the move off in his own half, passing to Alexei Eremenko Jr, who fed Litmanen. The FC Lahti midfielder played a beauty of a through ball inside Gareth Bale for Johansson to collect. There was still a lot for the Hibs striker to do, as the angle was acute and James Collins was tearing across the pitch to close him down, but luckily for Johansson the Wales goalkeeper Wayne Hennessy had a rush of blood to the head and steamed out of his goal. The ball looked to take a slight defelection as Johansson shot from the right-hand corner of the area, but it just about evaded Bale as he raced back attempting to clear.

VIDEO: Johansson scores Finland’s first

There was still time for the Finns to have a penalty shout turned down, after Litmanen and the Eremenko brothers combined neatly down the left. Roman Eremenko’s cross reached Forssell, but the Hannover forward went down under Bale’s challenge, which the referee adjudjed fair even though Bale did not touch the ball. It was an even first half, and Finland were a little fortunate to be a goal up.

“When we sat back a bit too deep in the first half it wasn’t fantastic, as they got past our full-backs a few times, but then we got the goal at a crucial time and the second half was much better,” Stuart Baxter told Finnish TV after the final whistle.

There was one second half scare when Bellamy nicked the ball from Hyypiä and played in Koumas, but the former Tranmere man could only shoot straight at Jääskeläinen. After that Finland ran the game, with their talisman Jari Litmanen – known as ‘the King’  in Finland -  in majestic form. Litmanen and Eremenko Jr had shown glimpses of what they could do in the first half, but after the break they started to dominate. Litmanen seemed to have the freedom of Cardiff, bisecting the Welsh defence at will, while Eremenko Jr was clearly trying to prove a point after his exclusion from Finland’s squad in the autumn.

The FC Saturn striker stung Hennessy’s hands with a shot from 30 metres out, released Pasanen down the right for the full back to cut inside and see his shot blocked by a panicking James Collins, and generally looked in menacing form. Baxter had said before that Wales wouldn’t know anything about him, as he plays in Russia and has not featured in any of Finland’s qualifiers so far, and it certainly looked like they were bemused by his runs and movement.

The star of the show, and Finland’s undoubted man of the match, was Litmanen. He was the hub of Finland’s attack, and his passing was a masterclass in precision and vision. Even his corners were impressive, with one picking out Hannu Tihinen, whose header was cleared off the line by Joe Ledley. He was of course involved in substitute Shefki Kuqi’s clinching goal, laying the ball off to Roman Eremenko, who pinged the ball into space for Kuqi to run on to before confidently curling the ball past Hennessy into the far corner.

VIDEO: Kuqi makes it 2-0

By this time only the Finland fans could be heard, unsurprisingly. They can celebrate a great performance – described afterwards as ‘our most complete yet’ by Litmanen – and revitalised qualification hopes ahead of the Norway friendly next Wednesday.

“We said before the game that it was going to be difficult, and it was because both teams had to win,” Baxter continued to his beaming TV Viisi interviewer. “We’ll keep hoping, but if we only hope we’ll never qualify, we have to actually do it. We’ll enjoy this one, but then we have to get our feet back on the ground and prepare for the next one.”

If Finland are the mirror image of Wales, it is probably a fairground attraction mirror showing them what they could be in a few years, if they keep developing as they have been doing. The Finns’ experience and class showed today, and ensures they can go into June’s qualifier against Russia in Helsinki cautiously optimistic.