Two points dropped: Armenia 0 Finland 0 (0-0)
Finland's footballers went to Jerevan in Armenia with high hopes of continuing their strong start to the UEFA European Championship qualifiers. However, a cocktail of loose passes around the penalty area, poor finishing, an awkward bumpy pitch, and three or four outstanding second-half saves from the Armenian goalkeeper Gevorg Kasparov meant that the visitors had to be content with a goalless draw and a share of the points.
Travelling to Armenia was never going to be a cakewalk, but the advance billing and the four points gained from last month's encounters with Poland and World Cup semi-finalists Portugal had suggested the Finns would continue their sequence of winning performances against one of the minnows of European football. In the last World Cup campaign the team had had no "banana-skin" trouble with countries such as Armenia or Azerbaijan, winning quite comfortably home and away.
The Armenians put up a fairly spirited defence, however, and despite dominating the proceedings the Finns could get no closer than scoring three offside goals, with a couple of glaring "legal" missed chances thrown in - in addition to Kasparov's goal-line heroics.
On top of this, the match proved costly in injuries and yellow cards. Midfielder Mika Väyrynen saw stars and collected a gaping bloody wound over his eye after a clash of heads, striker Jonatan Johansson looks like being out of contention for Wednesday night's match with Kazakhstan after pulling up with hamstring problems, and Markus Heikkinen collected a second booking and will definitely be suspended for one match. Defender Toni Kallio also picked up a knock to his ankle, but could be fit for Wednesday.
Since the team already had some injury woes going into these two games, coach Roy Hodgson may have to make some hurried running repairs to his line-up for Wednesday in Almaty.
It was not all bad news, however: Armenia may well yet cause trouble for other teams in the group, particularly if they continue to provide a potato field as a pitch. When classy ball-players like Jari Litmanen have difficulty reading the bounce, perhaps the Portuguese stars might share the same fate.
The bright showing of Mikael Forssell, on as a substitute for Shefki Kuqi after 66 minutes, suggested that the Birmingham City striker might be coming back to his old form. A place in the starting line-up and a couple of goals against Kazakhstan would be an excellent tonic.
Equally, the Finns never looked in any danger of conceding one of their trademark silly goals at the back as the combination of Sami Hyypiä, Petri Pasanen, Hannu Tihinen, and Toni Kallio formed a cohesive unit.
For now, though, there must be a measure of disappointment: it had been gratifying to head the Group A table, and now that honour goes to Serbia.
The Serbs moved on to seven points after a 1-0 victory at home to Belgium. Portugal (3-0 winners at home to Azerbaijan) are in third place with four points from two games, level with Poland (who won 1-0 away to Kazakhstan) and Belgium.
The Finns will be hoping that as well as finding their own goalscoring touch against Kazakhstan on Wednesday they get a bit of help from a draw between Poland and the Portuguese, and maybe even an upset or two in matches between Serbia and Armenia and Belgium and Azerbaijan.
Roy Hodgson has warned that the group could produce some setbacks for the fancied teams - and he was right about Saturday's game.
Finland:
Jussi Jääskeläinen
Petri Pasanen
Hannu Tihinen
Sami Hyypiä (booked, 28.)
Toni Kallio
Mika Väyrynen (74. Mika Nurmela)
Markus Heikkinen (booked, 50.)
Joonas Kolkka
Jari Litmanen
Shefki Kuqi (66. Mikael Forssell)
Jonatan Johansson (84. Aki Riihilahti)
Coach: Roy Hodgson
Referee: Damir Skomina, Slovenia
Attendance: c. 8,000
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 9.10.2006 - TODAY |
 Two points dropped: Armenia 0 Finland 0 (0-0)
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