Final whistle, time to cheer or annoy: In a strange intermediate stage, Finland’s players were trapped after 90 minutes. They had lost their game, maybe sealed the end of the European Championship, but their debut on the big football stage is not quite over yet. In the next 48 hours, they will find out how things will continue for them in their hotel rooms.
The result: Belgium defeated Finland 2-0 (0-0) on matchday three of European Championship group B. Here is the message.
The initial situation: Already qualified for the knockout round, a draw was enough for the Belgians to win the group. The Austrians’ victory against Ukraine in the early evening made it clear that the Finns would also be in the round of 16 with a draw as at least one of the four best thirds in the group.
The first half: The Finns started the »Draw« endeavor defensively, so very defensively. If the 5-3-2 had moved further back, they would have stood on their goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký. Romelu Lukaku had two half-chances (21st and 37th minutes), Jeremy Doku a very good one (42nd), but Hrádecký parried brilliantly. The highlight from a Finnish point of view: the news of the Danes 1-0 against Russia in the parallel game, which made Finland move up to second place in the intermediate table.
Home game in Saint Petersburg: It’s a mere 400 kilometers from the Finnish border to Saint Petersburg. So the sympathies in the stadium were clearly distributed, every ball win by the outsider was celebrated frenetically. Nice. On the other hand, the kneeling of both teams, the symbol against racism, was whistled before kick-off. Not nice.
The second half: Outsiders Finland wanted to keep the game away from their own goal, which at times succeeded quite well. But the Belgian class inevitably created opportunities. When Lukaku was thinly offside in the run-up to a supposed goal, the Finns were still lucky (65th), but then the impacts came: The Russians reduced the parallel game to 1: 2 – now one goal and the Finns would only be fourth. And it came: A header from Thomas Vermaelen hit the post, from there to Hrádecký and from there into the goal (74th). Lukakus 2-0 made the defeat complete (81st).
Statistics from the Hä? Zone: In the past 50 years, Belgium, the current leader in the Fifa world rankings, has participated in nine world championships and reached the semi-finals twice. In five European Championship finals, once a second and once a third place jumped out. Why am I telling you this? Because the Finns, without a tournament until this year, have won four out of seven meetings against the Belgians, three games ended in a draw. The last defeat dates back to 1968.
Doctor whistle: When Dr. Felix Brych is scheduled for international games, one must always hope that ARD commentator Tom Bartels is not around. At Brych’s first EM use, the ARD commentator was so excited about the “excellent positional play” and the performance of the German referee that it became very different. Mission number two was less spectacular without Bartels, but also without any problems. The 45-year-old already has one more bet than at the unfortunate World Cup 2018, there is little to say against another in the round of 16 at his last European Championship.
Finnish dream: National coach Markku Kanerva had prepared his players for “the greatest game in our football history”. Perhaps there will be an even bigger one with the round of 16. For this to happen, Finland needs to be two thirds behind Finland in the three remaining groups. A first step towards this would be a draw between Scotland and Croatia in Group D. If Spain then loses against Slovakia and Poland does not win against Sweden, the third in Group E will also remain behind the Finns.
Ready for the title ?: It is forbidden to draw conclusions about semifinals or finals from an almost meaningless group match against Finland. Actually. However, one can safely say that Belgium coach Robert Martínez has an impressively strong squad at his disposal. Anyone who can get Eden Hazard, Axel Witsel or Kevin de Bruyne into the starting line-up can be imagined as a happy person.
So it goes on: Belgium will meet a third party in the group on Sunday (9 p.m., live ticker: SPIEGEL.de). Whether the Finns will still be able to play a round of 16 will be determined by Wednesday evening shortly before 11 p.m. at the latest.
