Finland will face Montenegro at the Olympic Stadium in a forced win

Joel Pohjanpalo (center) is strongly pushing for the opening of the Owls. Jenni Gästgivar

The League of Nations is an exceptionally intense competition.

The full series of six matches is over in September, but in the next seven days, the Owls have already played two-thirds of the matches.

After this day, there is only one home game left.

Head coach Markku Kanerva clearly outlined the team’s goal of winning the League of Nations and thus obtaining a possible “spare cartridge” for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers as well.

The easiest way to succeed would be for Finland to scratch as many points as possible from its home field. On Saturday, Owls dropped two valuable points when it let go of Bosnia and Herzegovina Smail Prevljakin smooth out with extra time.

– In principle, if there is a situation of underpower in front of the goal, there is a high probability for the opponent’s goal. We have been through the situation with the team. In the future, the same thing will not happen again. We have learned a lesson.

– The rest of the matches are critical moments when the opponent raises a lot of players. We need to be able to react to that and see that there is no underpower.

Today, Montenegro, the leader of the block, will oppose, and Finland has never played against it in its history.

– We have analyzed the match between Bosnia and Herzegovina. We know where we need to improve, although there was a lot of good in that, too.

– Montenegro has proven to be a good team. It is a tough challenge for us.

“Last close”

Montenegro surprised a bit surprisingly in the opening round of Romania at home 2-0. It is certain that in this block, too, the teams will play crosswise, so Huuhkaji still has a good chance to win the block.

But you can no longer afford to lose extra points at home.

– Basically, we’ve always been looking for home wins, and last time it was really close. We have a certain game plan that will make that win, Kanerva assured Iltalehti.

– Montenegro is a good counterattack team. Overrun can retaliate or at least then the team is unbalanced.

On Kanerva’s checkered paper, you should get at least four points for the first two games. Reaching the mini-goal means a forced win from Tuesday’s match.

– Yes, we have also taken guest points along the way. But it is clear that because we received such a fantastic incentive from the home audience, now we also want to give them a prize in the form of a win.

Montenegro ranks 70th in the most recent Fifa rankings. If Finland crashes at the Olympic Stadium, it will most likely jump ahead of the Owners (57th).

The story continues after the picture.

At the same time, it would mean that the goal of the League of Nations would change to maintain the league level.

– Montenegro has used a few different groups. Maybe I was a little surprised at how strong they were. The team pressed really aggressively, Kanerva bought a match from Romania.

– Now it’s interesting to see which players they’re leaving with. Will there be recycling there? And will the coach leave (Miodrag) Radulovic make changes to the grouping because the job is working pretty well.

To which field?

Saturday’s game was surprised by Joel Pohjanpalo’s planting on the bench. The attacker, who fought for the Turkish league’s paint kingdom, is considered by many to be the most dangerous in Finland at the moment, when it would make no sense to bench him.

– Replacements are always made according to the situation. In the last game, we made substitutions that did not come on the field. There is no injury to him. Joel is in a good stitch, Kanerva argued.

Between the lines of the line, one can read that Jolle will rise against Montenegro possibly even in the opening.

– Of course, the load is thought of on a player-by-player basis. We closely monitor recovery and overall feel. Probably the next question is whether there will be any line-up changes for the Montenegro match, Kanerva said.

– Against: “will come”.

The League of Nations match between Finland and Montenegro can be watched on Yle TV2 and Arena from 6.15 pm.