Finland 1 Sweden 3: Not much doubt that the right team is going to Portugal
Finnish coach Antti Muurinen has work to do before World Cup campaign starts
By William Moore
Finland met Sweden in Tampere in a friendly football international on Friday. Sweden emerged 3-1 winners, and showed beyond dispute why it is they who are going to Euro 2004 in Portugal and the Finns who are embarking on their summer vacation.
The two teams had not faced each other at the top level for over a decade: they have not been drawn in the same qualifying groups for major competitions, and the Swedes can these days afford to look elsewhere for their sparring partners in friendlies.
Now, however, the neighbours wished to have a dress rehearsal before their Euro 2004 campaign begins next month. The Olympic Stadium was unavailable, since Metallica and 46,000 fans were kicking off the rock-concert summer at the venue, and so the Ratina Stadium in Tampere played host. The ground was full (16,500 spectators), but is not quite the same calibre as Helsinki in terms of atmosphere and noise.
To be perfectly honest, the game itself was nothing much to make a lot of noise about. Finland enjoyed the best of the first quarter of an hour, and the combination of veteran captain Jari Litmanen and 21-year-old striker Alexei Eremenko Jr. (given a second chance after a disappointing performance last time out) produced a few nice touches even before the 8th minute, when Eremenko was apparently pulled down in the box by the Swedish goalkeeper Magnus Hedman.
Litmanen put the resulting penalty away without difficulty. Had Finland gone on to win the match 1-0, the Swedes could justly have felt a little aggrieved, though Hedman did seem to get man rather than ball. Eremenko will not, however, have endeared himself to the unbiased observer by his theatrical gesturing to whip up the crowd after the incident. It was a blatant attempt to influence the Spanish referee.
The Finns had a chance to go two up after about a quarter of an hour, but it was squandered, and before long the Swedes shook off their initial lethargy and began to control the proceedings.
Even if the home side did still threaten occasionally, it was mostly cosmetic. Magnus Hedman had very little need to intervene, and it is doubtful whether he actually had to save a shot on target in the first half apart from Litmanen’s spot-kick.
After half an hour the Swedes got on level terms. Finnish striker Mikael Forssell slipped in the centre circle and was robbed by Petter Hansson. Hansson fed Anders Andersson, who motored forward and managed to squeeze rather too easily between the two Finnish centre-backs Hannu Tihinen and Sami Hyypiä and to rifle the ball past Antti Niemi.
On the stroke of half-time the visitors went ahead after Niemi could only parry a firm shot from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Marcus Allbäck tapped the rebound home at the far post.
Ibrahimovic looked sharp throughout, is very hard to shake off the ball, and gave Hyypiä a good deal to think about. The Ibrahimovic-Allbäck pairing was also responsible for the third goal, which Allbäck put away in the 82nd minute.
Well before that, the Finns had twice come close in the space of a minute shortly after the break. Hyypiä hit the crossbar from distance, and a slick move put Forssell one-on-one with Hedman, but the Swedish keeper saved.
However, at no stage in the second half did the Swedes look to be anything but comfortable, and there was a certain inevitability about it all. Sweden are a class act, and they can adapt their style to whomsoever they are facing; the Finns are not quite there yet.
Antti Niemi produced his usual impressive performance, and he acrobatically saved twice from close range before the Swedes got their late third goal. The problems did not lie between the posts, but some way in front of them.
So the Finnish players head off to their summer cottages, while the Swedes have one more friendly at home to Poland before they meet Bulgaria, Denmark, and Italy in Group C at the European Championships.
They will then also be able to call on the services of two of their biggest stars, Celtic’s Henrik Larsson and Arsenal’s Fredrik Ljungberg, who both stayed on the bench on Friday evening.
It was one refreshing feature of the match that neither side went mad with second-half substitutions: presumably Sweden’s coaching duo of Lars Lagerbäck and Tommy Söderberg felt that things should be kept as "real" as possible.
Sweden may not be favourites in Portugal, but on this showing they will give a good account of themselves, and they seem like the finished article.
Finnish coach Antti Muurinen, on the other hand, has a few problems to iron out before Finland play their first World Cup qualifier in mid-August. Defensive errors such as were seen on Friday, together with the lack of rapport that existed between Forssell and the midfield, will be cruelly exposed by the Romanians in Bucharest.
Finland’s slim hopes of qualifying for Germany 2006 depend on avoiding defeat in such away fixtures and punishing visitors who come here. The Finns have an unenviable task in Group 1: in addition to Romania, they must also face the Czech Republic and Holland (both fancied teams in Euro 2004) as well as two awkward customers in Macedonia and Armenia. Only Andorra look like providing a guaranteed six points.
On a completely different note, even if Finland’s football did not shine on Friday, her often-maligned public health services did.
One member of our travelling party managed to open up a ugly gaping wound under his knee in a friendly pre-match kickabout on the grass outside the stadium.
It was immediately obvious the injury would require hospital treatment. An ambulance was called, and it arrived 45 minutes before the scheduled kick-off of the international. The wounded man was driven to the ER, given 10 stitches, a pocketful of antibiotics, and enough painkiller to stun a bull elephant, and he was back in the Ratina Stadium grandstand before the Swedes scored their second goal. And all for the price of his taxi-ride back. It was an impressive display of medical efficiency and Finnish sisu.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 31.5.2004 - TODAY |
 Finland 1 Sweden 3: Not much doubt that the right team is going to Portugal |
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