Azerbaijan 1 Finland 0 - Euro 2008 qualification gets more difficult

Azeris get first win, and Finland tastes first defeat

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A humiliating defeat, an awful performance, and three valuable points lost. This was the disastrous result of Finland's long trip to Baku in Azerbaijan, where the national squad lost 1-0 to the hosts in their European Championship Group A qualifier on Wednesday night.
      It was only the Azeris' third win at this level, their first win in the Euro 2008 competition, and Finland's first defeat. It could hardly have come at a worse moment for the visitors, who had hitherto held out serious hopes of qualifying from what is a very tight and even group.
      The fact of the matter is that Finland gave a woeful account of themselves, in spite of the claims by coach Roy Hodgson after the match that the visitors had created more chances than the home side.
      In reality what passed for chances from the Finnish players were hopeful high crosses that the Azeri goalkeeper Farhad Valiyev plucked out of the air with no real difficulty.
     
"It's a huge setback, but we'll get over it", commented Hodgson. "All defeats are bad, but I don't feel that this was the worst of them. This was an extremely awkward match."
      A drab goalless draw (which in itself would have hurt Finnish momentum) seemed to be on the cards until everything went pear-shaped in the 83rd minute. Vugar Nadyrov's corner evaded everyone, until substitute Emin Imamaliyev got his left foot to the ball and drilled it on the half volley past Jussi Jääskeläinen and into the bottom corner.
      "I've been in football a long time and this was a tough match to win. It looked like being a draw and I would have been satisfied with taking a point home, but then they got a corner and scored from it", lamented Hodgson after the final whistle.
      After what turned out to be the winning strike from Imamaliyev, torches made out of newspaper were lit all over the stadium. Thousands of home fans fired up their morning paper in an impressive but possibly rather costly celebration. When UEFA get a report of the incidents, they are not likely to be amused.
     
The Finns' lack of bite was best summed up by the fact that not one of the visiting team had a shot on goal that would have forced a decent save out of Valiyev. Alexei Eremenko had one effort on target, but the shot was blocked by defenders before it could do any real damage.
      As captain, Jari Litmanen found himself having to act as a mouthpiece for the players' disappointment. He commented that at least at the present moment it felt like the worst defeat of his lengthy international career.
     
Finland had for once harboured real hopes of qualifying for their first major tournament after a bright start to the campaign and aided by some "useful" results among their rivals.
      A 3-1 away victory in Poland and a 1-1 draw in Helsinki against group favourites Portugal were followed by a goalless draw in Armenia, a 2-0 win away to Kazakhstan, and a rather lacklustre home win by the only goal against Armenia.
      Thanks to some favourable setbacks to other fancied runners, these results were nevertheless enough to put Finland at the top of the Group A table for the winter break.
      However, Poland have recovered from their initial gaffes and won their last five matches, and they have now opened up a five-point lead at the top, though the Poles have played a game more.
     
Poland have 16 points from seven outings, while the Finns, Portugal, and Serbia are all on 11 points from six. Finland are fourth on goal difference and goals scored.
      Just a few days ago, Kazakhstan gave the Finns a nice early Easter present by beating Serbia 2-1, and on Wednesday night the Serbs and the Portuguese played out a 1-1 draw in Belgrade that will have satisfied neither of them very much but given succour to their rivals.
     
Part of the frustration at the defeat in Baku comes from just this: the Group A results thus far had conspired to give the Finnish team every chance of making a splash - provided that they could keep grinding out results themselves.
      It has to be acknowledged that even if the trip to Azerbaijan was a long one and fraught with some difficulties, the hosts are still relative footballing minnows. These are matches that must be won.
      Finland's next two games are at home to Serbia and Belgium in early June, and six points have now become an absolute requirement if the challenge for one of the two qualifying spots from Group A is to be kept alive.
     
Even then, Roy Hodgson and Co. will have to ride their luck and hope that the group continues to throw up unexpected results - for instance that the Poles come unstuck in Baku in just the same fashion as the Finns did, or that Belgium at home can blunt a Portuguese attack that put four goals past them in Lisbon.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Dodging a bullet: Finland 1 Armenia 0 (16.11.2006)

Links:
  UEFA: Euro 2008 Group A

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