Bitter last-minute defeat for Finnish women in European Championships

Upcoming matches against Denmark and Sweden offer little prospect of success

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Finland's women footballers began their campaign at the UEFA European Championships with a spirited fight-back against England from 2-0 down, but a late equaliser by Laura Kalmari was not enough: England scored again in the first minute of injury time to take the match 3-2.
      The match was full of drama and was actually a better advertisement for the game of football than many encounters between the highly-paid and pampered males of the species.
     
The Finns can probably consider themselves a shade unlucky not to have salvaged a draw from an evening that began rather disastrously, contained at least one contentious refereeing decision, and ended with a last-minute setback.
      They went 1-0 down after a low free-kick from England's talented 17-year-old Karen Carney eluded Satu Kunnas in the Finnish goal and trickled into the net off the leg of the unlucky Finnish captain Sanna Valkonen.
      Finland struck the crossbar in the 25th minute through a long-range header from Anne Mäkinen with the English keeper Jo Fletcher well beaten, but found themselves 2-0 down just before the interval when Amanda Barr followed up a powerful shot against the bar from Kelly Smith.
      Barr's header looped over Kunnas, but she got back to sweep the ball off the line. However, the assistant referee pointed to the centre circle and the Hungarian referee agreed. None of the video replays showed unambiguously that the ball had completely crossed the goal-line, but in any event Finland went in at half-time two goals in arrears.
     
Their spirited second-half performance was greatly to their credit. Anna-Kaisa Rantanen got one back with a well-placed long range effort in the 56th minute, and for long periods thereafter the visitors took the game to the English.
      It was no real surprise when Laura Kalmari followed up a cross from Mäkinen to head home in the 89th minute and put the scores level. Before that, the Finns had had claims turned down for two penalties, one of which looked like a blatant push on a Finnish striker in the box.
      Then again, it must be said that the English players had no shortage of chances to wrap the game up earlier. Satu Kunnas recovered from a shaky first half to produce a string of good saves to keep Finland in the hunt, including a brave dive at the feet of Eni Aluko when the English substitute beat the offside trap and was through alone on goal.
      Kalmari's goal was celebrated wildly in the Finnish camp. But with stoppage time already running, all the champagne went suddenly flat, as Carney smacked the rebound of a blocked Aluko shot high into the net to score the winner for England.
      The final minutes were a less impressive advertisement for time-wasting, which seems to have infiltrated the women's game as much as it has the men's version.
     
A draw against England would have been a dream start for the Finns, the underdogs in the tournament and the lowest-rated of the eight teams taking part.
      The two other teams in their group - Sweden and Denmark - also scrapped their way to a 1-1 share of the spoils. Sweden and Denmark are widely expected to progress from the group at the expense of Finland and the hosts England.
      Sunday's match was played at the City of Manchester Stadium in front of an enthusiastic crowd of more than 29,000, a new record for the women's game at this level. Five goals and a good deal of excitement will have done the sport no harm and may well have won it some new friends in Britain.
      But the result leaves the Finnish women with a mountain to climb. Sweden were the runners-up in the last women's World Cup, and Denmark are currently ranked 9th in the world. Taking even a point from these two matches will be an achievement, and for the Finns to progress from their group to the semi-finals would now require a major upset.


Links:
  UEFA Euro 2005

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