Preview: Finland vs. San Marino
Finland will attempt to claim a third consecutive victory when they play host to minnows San Marino on Monday.
The visitors, meanwhile, are dreaming of picking up their first-ever away point in European Championship qualifying.
After beginning their qualifying campaign with a 3-1 defeat to Denmark, Finland bounced back with a 1-0 win against Northern Ireland to round off the March international window with three crucial points.
Finland, who are looking to qualify for consecutive European Championships, played host to Slovenia on Friday in their first home game of Euro 2024 qualifying.
As it proved, Finland made full use of home advantage to claim a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Joel Pohjanpalo and Oliver Antman.
Having picked up two wins from three matches, Markku Kanerva’s side are level on six points in Group H with Denmark, Kazakhstan and Slovenia.
Finland will be expecting to collect all three points against lowly-ranked San Marino, but may they will view the contest as a golden opportunity to claim a third consecutive clean sheet.
San Marino have won just one international game in their history, beating Liechtenstein 1-0 in a friendly in April 2004.
Seventeen years have passed since that result, and there is no indication that San Marino’s winless run will come to an end any time soon after they fell to a 3-0 defeat to Kazakhstan on Friday.
As a result of the heavy defeat, San Marino have now lost 34 competitive matches in a row since playing out a goalless draw with Estonia in November 2014.
San Marino managed to restrict Finland to a 1-0 victory when the two nations last met 12 years ago, and they will be looking to produce another resolute performance on Monday.
They will also be aiming to score their first competitive goal since finding the net in a 7-1 defeat to Poland in World Cup qualification in September 2021.
Finland Euro Champ Qualifying form:
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Finland form (all competitions):
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San Marino Euro Champ Qualifying form:
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San Marino form (all competitions):
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We say: Finland 4-0 San Marino
Finland would have taken confidence from Friday’s win over Slovenia, and with momentum in their favour, we think that they will prove far too strong for San Marino.