Finland vs Russia
Finland vs Russia takes place on June 16 in St Petersburg in the second round of games in Group B of the European Championships. The Finns opened their Euro2020 campaign with a win against Denmark in sad circumstances following the hospitalisation of Christian Eriksen while Russia got thumped in their opening game in this stadium by a strong Belgium side. Read on for more analysis, match predictions and betting tips.
Form
It’s probably going to be a tough couple of days for Finland before this game, even though they won their opener against Denmark in Copenhagen. The delay in the game brought about by the collapse of Eriksen changed the match completely, and it was always going to be tough for Denmark to get their game faces back on afterwards. Finland have to be professional though; a second win here guarantees them progression to the next round of matches - something that would have been viewed before the tournament as a success.
Russia were comprehensively beaten by a strong Belgium side in St Petersburg last time out and while Finland do not have the strength in depth that Belgium do, coach Stanislav Cherchesov will be demanding much more from his team. Defensively they have been poor and with only three clean sheets in 14 games they know that they will have to improve. Against Belgium they had just 34% of possession; in this game Russia should see more of the ball and it will be important that they do something with it.
Injuries
Finland came through the match against Denmark without picking up any injuries and coach Markku Kanerva will have a full squad to choose from. There are no obvious question marks over who Kanerva will pick, with the Finnish coach sticking to a 3-5-2 formation normally which sees skipper Tim Sparv play at the base of midfield and the two widemen pushing forwards. Union Berlin forward Joel Pohjanpalo scored Finland’s first goal in the finals of a European Championship tournament and is likely to start again alongside Norwich City’s Teemu Pukki.
Russia could revert to three at the back for this game having played a more compact 4-2-3-1 against Belgium. The move to three at the back would allow the experienced Yuri Zhirkov to play in a slightly more advanced role and free up the likes of Aleksandr Golovin to play more of a free role in attacking midfield. Skipper Artem Dzyuba is likely to continue to lead the line as a lone forward.
Match Prediction
Despite getting thumped 3-0 in the first game Russia come into this one as fairly heavy favourites. Finland are nowhere near as strong as Belgium are and it should be expected to see a more attacking Russia side. However, despite the sad nature of their victory, Finland will know that a win should see them through to the round of 16. In the goals markets the value betting tips might be going against the bookies feelings of a lack of goals in this one with both teams knowing that they need victory to progress.
