Northern Ireland – Finland

In Belfast, the visitors will put up a fight against the formal favourites

Although Finland finished above Northern Ireland in Group H before the start of the qualifying campaign, the results of the first leg put them at opposite ends of the table, with the advantage of Great Britain. That said, the Finns are understandable, as they had to play away against the group favourite. In Copenhagen, Finland conceded a goal midway through the first half but managed to level the score early in the second half and withstood the pressure until the 82nd minute when young Atalanta Hojlund unleashed his shot again. The 1-3 defeat both underlined the Finnish side's limited level and showed that the visitors to the upcoming game have the character and skill to perform decently in difficult conditions. Northern Ireland faced arguably Europe's weakest team, San Marino, in the first leg. A 2-0 win for the British can only be a technical testament to their already obvious advantage over their rivals. Before the meeting in Belfast, bookmakers had placed Northern Ireland as the favourites, offering odds of 2.55 to win. Michael O'Neill returned to the Northern Ireland job at the beginning of December last year, which he had already led from 2012 to 2020. It followed the British team's performance in the 2022 Nations League, which saw them narrowly avoid relegation to League D, only to be beaten on extra points by the Cyprus team. By the way, in their three home games in League C, Northern Ireland have only beaten Kosovo, securing three points through 82 and 90+3 minute goals. They drew 0-0 with Cyprus and lost 0-1 to Greece. Finland, after their poor showing in qualifying for the Mundial, fared fairly well in last year's Nations League. In the quartet with Montenegro, Romania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Finns scored eight points to take the final second place. The visitors to the upcoming game, given the composition of the qualifying group, certainly have ambitions to fight for a place in Euro 2024. After their defeat to Denmark, the visitors have no choice but to take at least one point from their rivals.