Belgium 0 Finland 0: The mountain just got higher

By William Moore
     
      Finland played their third goalless draw in succession in Brussels on Saturday night, though on this occasion they might arguably blame spineless refereeing as much as poor finishing for the scoreline.
      In any event, the loss of two points that were basically going begging against Belgium will make the task of qualifying for Euro 2008 only marginally less difficult than climbing the north face of The Eiger in shorts and beach sandals: it might be possible, but the smart money says different.
     
The referee who is likely to shoulder some of the blame was a Mr. Costas Kapitanis.
      He failed to overrule the linesman’s decision that Jonatan Johansson was offside when Johansson slotted the ball home from close range after 42 minutes. The replay showed Johansson was gifted the final pass not by one of his own, but by the outstretched leg of a Belgian defender. The referee was on hand to witness this, but took no action above giving Belgium a free-kick.
      But it is all too simple to blame the poor man from Cyprus, a tourism officer famed for sending three players off in a Leeds United European Cup match in 2000. Finland created quite enough chances to bury Belgium and help their cause, and none of them went in.
      Hannu Tihinen put a free header over the bar, Sami Hyypiä had the ball in the net after a free-kick but was (probably correctly this time) adjudged offside, Alexei Eremenko Jr. saw one free-kick curl past the upright, and Joonas Kolkka hit the side netting after good work from Johansson had freed him on the right. Towards the end there was some hectic goal-line stuff after Finland won an indirect freekick inside the area, and with five minutes left Daniel Sjölund got on the end of a long ball from Eremenko Jr., but could only find the Belgian goalkeeper’s legs with a scuffed shot.
     
The hosts, fielding a young and much-changed team, could have stolen all three points, too. Even if the Finnish defence held firm for the most part, Belgium were a shade unlucky themselves, and caused problems on the break.
      In the first half Faris Haroun turned and fired a sharp shot from close to the penalty spot, and Jussi Jääskeläinen deflected it onto the post, from where it bounced back alarmingly close to the line before he got it safely into his arms.
      Jääskeläinen also had to get across smartly to save a second-half free-kick from the Belgian captain Timmy Simons, and he came charging out to the edge of his area to snuff out another golden chance after Sami Hyypiä had a "senior moment" on the edge of the box to let in Moussa Dembele.
     
The game started off with neither side getting to grips with what looked like a slippery and rather soft surface, and cohesive passing movements were few and far between. This kept rhythm to a minimum, but it did make for a certain amount of end-to-end excitement, as both midfields kept giving the ball away in awkward places.
      When things went awry at the Finnish end, more often than not it was Aki Riihilahti who ended up doing the heavy lifting to sort things out. Riihilahti worked diligently in the lower midfield, but in front of him there was not much happening of a constructive nature, and a lot of the Finnish attacks were of the long-ball-forward-in-hope variety.
     
With a number of important players sidelined - Jari Litmanen, Mikael Forssell, Teemu Tainio, and a half-fit Mika Väyrynen among them - coach Roy Hodgson probably got the best he could out of his players, and he was at pains to point out after the match that Finland are still in it and have lost only two of twelve matches in this qualifying campaign.
      The Finns also have the meanest defence in the entire group: they have conceded just 6 goals so far.
      Hodgson said he was proud of his players, and the Finnish fans should be equally supportive. Considering the situation when he took over - after crushing home defeats by Holland and the Czech Republic had put paid to the 2006 World Cup qualifiers and Antti Muurinen's career in charge - he does have a valid point.
      He also admonished any who might have dared suggest he was slow to make attacking substitutions (Shefki Kuqi and Mika Nurmela came on right at the death for Johansson and Sjölund), and he stressed that Finland had come close to scoring several times in the last twenty minutes.
     
Even so, the result must be seen as a disappointment, a wasted opportunity, and a blow to hopes of qualification. The Finns will now watch and wait during Wednesday’s matches, and will take on Azerbaijan at home on November 17th.
      Alexei Eremenko Jr. will be unavailable for that game, after picking up a booking on Saturday for a rather flamboyant dive. In all fairness, he was brought down for real often enough to justify a bit of amateur theatricals.
      The Eiger to be climbed will come four days later, when the Finns travel to Lisbon to play Portugal. In all probability, only an unlikely and heroic away win will suffice.
      The last occasion when Finland played Portugal away saw an astonishing 4-1 victory for the visitors, but that was a friendly match in Oporto in 2002, and Jari Litmanen (who scored twice) was still in his pomp. Times have changed. Finland have not scored four goals in a game since 2005, and then it was against Macedonia, who are not quite the same thing.
     
     
IN THE OTHER GAMES ON SATURDAY NIGHT, the four teams with hopes of qualifying for the two places in the EURO 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland were pretty much whittled down to three (or to two and a bit if you take a more pessimistic view of Finland’s chances in Lisbon).
      Group A front-runners Poland had a shocker of a first 45 minutes at home to Kazakhstan, and went in for their oranges 1-0 down.
      However, Leo Beenhakker obviously read his men the riot act in the dressing-room, and they came out fighting and scored three goals without reply - all from Euzebiusz Smolarek - to restore some semblance of order to the proceedings.
      Poland are now teetering on the edge: they have 24 points with two games to play, and they must fancy their chances of wrapping things up by beating Belgium at home before they travel to Belgrade to meet Serbia.
     
Portugal did their campaign no harm by picking up a valuable 2-0 victory over Azerbaijan in Baku, helped by the sending-off of the Azeri captain Aslan Kerimov. This win lifted them level with Finland on 20 points, and ahead on goal difference.
      They have another tricky visit to Kazakhstan in prospect on Wednesday, but if they win in Almaty and then dispose of Armenia at home, they will go into their last fixture - against you-know-who - knowing they need only to draw at home.
     
Serbia, meanwhile, emulated Finland in getting a third successive draw, but by failing to do any better than 0-0 away to Armenia, they must now regard their chances of qualifying as wafer-thin.
      Basically they have to win all their three remaining matches - Azerbaijan away on Wednesday and Kazakhstan and Poland at home in November - AND hope that everybody else slips up.
      For instance, even three resounding victories will not be enough for the Serbs if Poland beat Belgium and if Portugal collect seven points from their remaining fixtures.
     
Then again, they could break Finnish hearts if Poland go through as winners (with 27 points) and if Finland beat Azerbaijan and then somehow manage to upset Portugal. Then Serbia and Finland would each have 26 points - assuming the Serbs do win those three games - and Serbia would qualify by virtue of their 2-0 victory in Helsinki.
      This order would still hold true if Portugal were also in the equation on 26 points, with the Portuguese being relegated to fourth place.
     
There are other permutations, of course, and as Roy Hodgson noted, it IS still possible for Finland to qualify without taking maximum points, but I wouldn’t go betting the farm on it - especially if they continue to find goals as hard to come by as on Saturday.
     
     
Finland: Jussi Jääskeläinen; Petri Pasanen, Hannu Tihinen, Sami Hyypiä (captain), Toni Kallio; Joonas Kolkka, Aki Riihilahti, Roman Eremenko, Daniel Sjölund (90+2. Mika Nurmela); Alexei Eremenko Jr. (booked, 43.), Jonatan Johansson (89. Shefki Kuqi).
     
Coach: Roy Hodgson
     
Referee: Costas Kapitanis (Cyprus)
     
Attendance: Looked like around 20,000 - stadium was barely half-full.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Blast from the Past - Smash and grab in Oporto: Portugal 1 Finland 4 (28.3.2002)
  Finland 0 Poland 0: a more encouraging showing, but a bitterly disappointing result (13.9.2007)
  Serbia 0 Finland 0: Hodgson´s men got what they came for (10.9.2007)

Links:
  Possible reason for Finnish travelling support (Football in Finland)
  UEFA