The dream lives on: Kazakhstan 0 Finland 2
Goals from veterans Litmanen and Hyypiä keep EURO 2008 hopes on track
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By William Moore
"If it is Wednesday it must be Almaty and Kazakhstan", or at least that is how it probably felt to the Finnish players as they entered day ten of their Caucasus & Central Asian tour. Having done everything except score a goal against Armenia in Jerevan on Saturday, Roy Hodgson's men went into last night's European Championships qualifier - nearly 4,000 kilometres from Helsinki - with only one aim in mind: winning, even if it was ugly. And then going home.
They did win, scoring twice without reply with a goal in each half, and they were never really seriously threatened with a setback, though Kazakhstan looked brighter and faster on the break than Armenia. To be fair, the Finns occasionally helped them out: goalkeeper Jussi Jääskeläinen had to go down smartly once to clear up after a ghastly pass went astray at the back.
The Finnish side, with Mikael Forssell up front in place of the injured Jonatan Johansson, started a little nervously.
We saw the same problems that had hampered the team in Armenia - the defence and midfield looked solid enough, but too many passes in the final third of the field were hit-and-hope affairs, and attacks broke down just when they were supposed to get genuinely interesting.
After five minutes, captain Jari Litmanen - who had a much better outing than on Saturday and grew in stature as time went on - split the home side's defence to put Mika Nurmela through, but Nurmela's shot was blocked. Not long afterwards, the Finns had a scare when a mis-hit cross after a Kazakh corner landed on the top of the net.
However, after around 20 minutes the visitors settled and began to exert some real pressure, even though the Kazakhs were by this time putting a lot of men behind the ball and contenting themselves with sporadic breaks.
On 28 minutes Toni Kallio, stung perhaps by having just picked up a yellow card, strolled confidently into the opposition half before picking out Mikael Forssell on the edge of the box. The striker turned and shrugged off two defenders to get one-on-one with David Loria in the Kazakhstan goal. He rounded the keeper but couldn't get a shot in, so he improvised with a deft backheel towards the target. The ball was headed away (by a player lying prone on the ground!), but only straight into the path of Litmanen, who collected his third goal of the qualifying campaign so far.
Joonas Kolkka had a shot blocked, and Toni Kallio fired a decent left-footed effort just wide of the far post, but that was just about it for the first half, as the Finns controlled proceedings without really looking like getting a second goal to kill off the contest.
It did come eventually, after 65 minutes, and almost against the run of play, as Kazakhstan did some of their best work just after the break. The goal involved three of Finland's most experienced players - Litmanen (35 years young and 106 international caps), Joonas Kolkka (32 and 72 caps), and Sami Hyypiä, who celebrated his 33rd birthday last Saturday and was playing his 80th match for Finland.
Litmanen took a short corner to Kolkka, whose cross was met forcefully by Hyypiä at altitude. His textbook downward header bounced on the goal-line and Loria was beaten for a second time.
From then on it was really a matter of running down the clock, although the hardy little band of travelling fans thought they might get a third goal when Finland won a freekick in the dying seconds of added time. Litmanen's shot was parried away.
After the game, coach Hodgson was clearly pleased with his charges and with the way that they had coped with the long stint of life on the road. He noted that there had been nothing intrinsically wrong with the Finnish performance in the earlier goalless draw, and that he had been confident that if they could reproduce that form, the goals and the points would be bound to follow.
"I'm proud of my players, who kept their heads and their concentration. We played two good games, and we would have deserved six points from them. We got four, but if we were to play that Armenia match over again, I'm sure we'd have got a win out of it."
He also commented on the fact that the team had finally managed to score from a set-piece - with players like Hyypiä, Hannu Tiihinen, and Shefki Kuqi (who came on for Forssell after 72 minutes), the Finns have a potent weapon in the air that has thus far brought a good many chances but no goals. Hodgson joked that he was glad he had these players and did not have to worry about defending against them.
Roy Hodgson has every reason to be satisfied with the way things have gone so far, but he is a pragmatist and he knows that this is a long haul: with so many in the group, Finland will have to play another ten games on top of the four they have played so far. A good many of them will be very tough. All the same, it is nicer to have eight points in the bag now than to have to think about chasing them up later.
Finland are still lying second in Group A, as Serbia made short work of Armenia, winning 3-0. The Serbs have ten points from their four matches so far.
The upset result of the night, which will also doubtless have warmed Finnish hearts, was that Poland beat Portugal 2-1 in Chorzow. Belgium also won 3-0 at home to Azerbaijan. The Poles and the Belgians both have seven points from four, while ante-post favourites Portugal find themselves in fifth place in the group with four points from three matches.
The Finns have every chance of heading the group table when the qualifying campaign takes a break for the winter. The team hosts Armenia at the Finnair Stadium in mid-November, and will be expecting to make the visitors pay dearly for the two dropped points in Jerevan, while Serbia do not have a match before March 2007. Belgium will also welcome Poland in November, and a draw in that match would also be to Finland's liking.
Finland:
Jussi Jääskeläinen
Petri Pasanen
Hannu Tihinen
Sami Hyypiä
Toni Kallio (booked, 23.)
Mika Nurmela
Mika Väyrynen (90. Aki Riihilahti)
Jari Ilola
Joonas Kolkka
Jari Litmanen
Mikael Forssell (71. Shefki Kuqi)
Coach: Roy Hodgson
Referee: Athanassios Briakos (Greece)
Attendance: c. 10,000
"If it is Wednesday it must be Almaty and Kazakhstan", or at least that is how it probably felt to the Finnish players as they entered day ten of their Caucasus & Central Asian tour. Having done everything except score a goal against Armenia in Jerevan on Saturday, Roy Hodgson's men went into last night's European Championships qualifier - nearly 4,000 kilometres from Helsinki - with only one aim in mind: winning, even if it was ugly. And then going home.
They did win, scoring twice without reply with a goal in each half, and they were never really seriously threatened with a setback, though Kazakhstan looked brighter and faster on the break than Armenia. To be fair, the Finns occasionally helped them out: goalkeeper Jussi Jääskeläinen had to go down smartly once to clear up after a ghastly pass went astray at the back.
The Finnish side, with Mikael Forssell up front in place of the injured Jonatan Johansson, started a little nervously.
We saw the same problems that had hampered the team in Armenia - the defence and midfield looked solid enough, but too many passes in the final third of the field were hit-and-hope affairs, and attacks broke down just when they were supposed to get genuinely interesting.
After five minutes, captain Jari Litmanen - who had a much better outing than on Saturday and grew in stature as time went on - split the home side's defence to put Mika Nurmela through, but Nurmela's shot was blocked. Not long afterwards, the Finns had a scare when a mis-hit cross after a Kazakh corner landed on the top of the net.
However, after around 20 minutes the visitors settled and began to exert some real pressure, even though the Kazakhs were by this time putting a lot of men behind the ball and contenting themselves with sporadic breaks.
On 28 minutes Toni Kallio, stung perhaps by having just picked up a yellow card, strolled confidently into the opposition half before picking out Mikael Forssell on the edge of the box. The striker turned and shrugged off two defenders to get one-on-one with David Loria in the Kazakhstan goal. He rounded the keeper but couldn't get a shot in, so he improvised with a deft backheel towards the target. The ball was headed away (by a player lying prone on the ground!), but only straight into the path of Litmanen, who collected his third goal of the qualifying campaign so far.
Joonas Kolkka had a shot blocked, and Toni Kallio fired a decent left-footed effort just wide of the far post, but that was just about it for the first half, as the Finns controlled proceedings without really looking like getting a second goal to kill off the contest.
It did come eventually, after 65 minutes, and almost against the run of play, as Kazakhstan did some of their best work just after the break. The goal involved three of Finland's most experienced players - Litmanen (35 years young and 106 international caps), Joonas Kolkka (32 and 72 caps), and Sami Hyypiä, who celebrated his 33rd birthday last Saturday and was playing his 80th match for Finland.
Litmanen took a short corner to Kolkka, whose cross was met forcefully by Hyypiä at altitude. His textbook downward header bounced on the goal-line and Loria was beaten for a second time.
From then on it was really a matter of running down the clock, although the hardy little band of travelling fans thought they might get a third goal when Finland won a freekick in the dying seconds of added time. Litmanen's shot was parried away.
After the game, coach Hodgson was clearly pleased with his charges and with the way that they had coped with the long stint of life on the road. He noted that there had been nothing intrinsically wrong with the Finnish performance in the earlier goalless draw, and that he had been confident that if they could reproduce that form, the goals and the points would be bound to follow.
"I'm proud of my players, who kept their heads and their concentration. We played two good games, and we would have deserved six points from them. We got four, but if we were to play that Armenia match over again, I'm sure we'd have got a win out of it."
He also commented on the fact that the team had finally managed to score from a set-piece - with players like Hyypiä, Hannu Tiihinen, and Shefki Kuqi (who came on for Forssell after 72 minutes), the Finns have a potent weapon in the air that has thus far brought a good many chances but no goals. Hodgson joked that he was glad he had these players and did not have to worry about defending against them.
Roy Hodgson has every reason to be satisfied with the way things have gone so far, but he is a pragmatist and he knows that this is a long haul: with so many in the group, Finland will have to play another ten games on top of the four they have played so far. A good many of them will be very tough. All the same, it is nicer to have eight points in the bag now than to have to think about chasing them up later.
Finland are still lying second in Group A, as Serbia made short work of Armenia, winning 3-0. The Serbs have ten points from their four matches so far.
The upset result of the night, which will also doubtless have warmed Finnish hearts, was that Poland beat Portugal 2-1 in Chorzow. Belgium also won 3-0 at home to Azerbaijan. The Poles and the Belgians both have seven points from four, while ante-post favourites Portugal find themselves in fifth place in the group with four points from three matches.
The Finns have every chance of heading the group table when the qualifying campaign takes a break for the winter. The team hosts Armenia at the Finnair Stadium in mid-November, and will be expecting to make the visitors pay dearly for the two dropped points in Jerevan, while Serbia do not have a match before March 2007. Belgium will also welcome Poland in November, and a draw in that match would also be to Finland's liking.
Finland:
Jussi Jääskeläinen
Petri Pasanen
Hannu Tihinen
Sami Hyypiä
Toni Kallio (booked, 23.)
Mika Nurmela
Mika Väyrynen (90. Aki Riihilahti)
Jari Ilola
Joonas Kolkka
Jari Litmanen
Mikael Forssell (71. Shefki Kuqi)
Coach: Roy Hodgson
Referee: Athanassios Briakos (Greece)
Attendance: c. 10,000
Helsingin Sanomat