Finnish Under-21 footballers top group and qualify for European Championships playoffs

Draw takes place in Sweden on Friday

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Finland’s Under-21 football team drew 0-0 away to Slovenia in Velenje on Tuesday night to secure top spot in their European Championships qualifying group and a slightly more favourable place in the play-off draw, to be held in Malmö, Sweden on September 12th.
     
In fact the Finns were guaranteed a place in Friday’s draw regardless of the result of the fixture in Slovenia, but had the results gone against them they might have only finished as one of the best four runners-up from the ten qualifying groups.
      Instead that spot went - by the narrowest of margins - to group rivals Denmark, who beat Scotland 1-0 and scraped through as the fourth-best runner-up, just ahead of The Netherlands (the Under-21 European Champions from 2006 and 2007) and Croatia on goal difference.
      It was the Finns’ 2-1 victory over Denmark in Turku last weekend that ensured they would progress in some shape or form.
     
The Finnish side, coached by Markku Kanerva, were not at their very best against the Slovenes, but goalkeeper Anssi Jaakkola kept a clean sheet while the Finns probably kept half an eye on the score coming from Aalborg, where the Danes grabbed a first-half lead and hung on to it.
      Finland took 19 points from their eight group matches, with the only defeat coming against Scotland away in March.
      The Scots would have needed a draw against Denmark to go through, but the result meant that both teams finished with 16 points and Denmark won out by virtue of their better head-to-head record, as the reverse fixture had been a goalless draw.
      Slovenia (4 points) and Lithuania (1 point) completed the group.
     
The finals will be held in Sweden next June. The Swedes qualify automatically as hosts.
      A total of eight countries will take part, and the playoffs are a means of whittling down the ten group winners and four best runners-up to the required seven additional finalists.
      Playoff matches will be over two legs, home and away, on October 11th and October 15th.
      With all the significant qualifying matches played, the group winners are: Italy, Turkey. England, Spain, Switzerland, Finland, Austria, Serbia, Germany, and Wales.
      The four best runners-up are: Belarus, Israel, France, and Denmark.
     
The only seeding in operation for the draw is that the four 2nd-placed teams cannot meet one another in the playoffs, but this does mean the Finns have a reasonable chance of drawing one of these teams, rather than Italy, England, Spain, Germany, or last time’s beaten finalists Serbia.
      The dismissal of the Dutch was a real surprise - a goal four minutes from time sealed their fate as the Swiss beat them 1-0.
      Also missing will be Romania, who slumped to a 3-0 loss at home to Wales, after having gone 18 matches without defeat. This upset and France’s 1-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina was enough to relegate the Romanians - who headed the Group 10 table before Tuesday night - to third place.


Links:
  UEFA Under-21 European Championships, 2009

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