Finland - Wales

Photo by Lehtikuva & Ilta-sanomat.

Match report by Sky Sports; Ft 2-1

Match report by Nordic Football News here.


Finland has not been that poor as it is right now for a long time and picks for Welsh success at + 0,5 are definitely value when at least 1.90

There are no decent strikers in the Finnish squad, all of them are either injured, jobless or play in minor leagues without any real success, and there are suprisingly several players from the local Veikkausliiga, including the top striker Hermanni Vuorinen from FC Honka.

Finland drawing at Liechtenstein was not down to bad luck, it was quite a fair reflection of Stuart Baxter´s team´s abilities at this very moment.

Finland against Wales and Germany;


Jussi Jääskeläinen, Bolton Wanderers – 53 / 0
Otto Fredrikson, Lilleström SK – 3 / 0

Veli Lampi, FC Zürich – 15 / 0
Hannu Tihinen, FC Zürich – 75 / 5
Sami Hyypiä, Bayer 04 Leverkusen – 101 / 5
Petri Pasanen, Werder Bremen – 56 / 1
Niklas Moisander, AZ Alkmaar – 6 / 0
Ari Nyman, FC Inter – 19 / 0

Markus Heikkinen, SK Rapid Wien – 49 / 0
Teemu Tainio, Birmingham City FC – 50 / 6
Roman Eremenko, FC Dynamo Kyiv – 22 / 0
Joonas Kolkka, NAC Breda – 95 / 11
Roni Porokara, Örebro SK – 7 / 1
Tim Sparv, Halmstads BK – 3 / 0
Perparim Hetemaj, FC Twente – 2 / 0

Jonatan Johansson – 98 / 21
Jari Litmanen, FC Lahti – 127 / 31
Alexei Eremenko Jr., FC Metalist Kharkiv – 42 / 13
Kasper Hämäläinen, TPS – 2 / 0
Shefki Kuqi, TuS Koblenz – 58 / 7
Berat Sadik, SV Zulte Waregem – 4 / 0
Hermanni Vuorinen, FC Honka – 0 / 0
Niklas Tarvajärvi, Karlsruher SC – 4 / 0

The Welsh are not a top team either and at least Gabbidon and Ledley are doubftul, but the sorry state of Finland makes them only slightly favourites even at home. Germany next week looks like a mountain to climb.