Women’s Euro 2022 team guide No 6: Finland
This article is part of the Guardian’s Women’s Euro 2022 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 16 countries who have qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 6 July.
Overview
Finland were quite satisfied after the qualifying draw, having been paired with Scotland from Pot 1 and Portugal from Pot 3. It could have been a lot worse. So Finland set about getting results with a key one coming in the last game of 2019, away to Portugal on an awful pitch near Porto. In a dramatic finish, Finland equalised from a corner in the last minute, Anna Westerlund blocking a Portuguese defender so that Linda Sällström could score.
That set the tone for the rest of the campaign, Finland making a habit of scoring late, important goals. Away to Scotland it was Amanda Rantanen who scored a late winner in the most dramatic and bizarre circumstances. A breakaway move led to Rantanen being one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Her shot hit the keeper, rebounded on to her face and bounced into the net.
After that, all Finland had to do was to beat Portugal at home on a very cold day in Helsinki. Again they took their time, but in the end Sällström scored a lovely goal in stoppage time to ensure qualification for Euro 2022.
The coach, Anna Signeul, has been in charge now since 2017 and sticks to her tried and trusted 4-4-2 formation. They rely on a stingy defence that conceded just twice in qualifying. At the Tournoi de France in February against high-quality opposition in France, the Netherlands and Brazil, however, they shipped eight goals in three games, struggling with defending set-pieces and crosses.
Finland try to play on the counter but because the full-backs are heavily involved going forward, it often leaves space in behind them. This summer they are in the “group of death” with Germany, Spain and Denmark, but that doesn’t seem to worry Signeul. “The group is exciting,” she said after the draw. “All the teams can beat each other, and the overall strength of the group means that we don’t have to win all our games to go through.”
One small concern going into the tournament is that Signeul’s backroom staff has changed several times in the past few years. The assistant coach, Maiju Ruotsalainen, and fitness coach Anne Mäkinen left at the end of 2019 and the new fitness coach Lasse Lagerblom said his goodbyes the following year. After the qualification campaign another assistant coach, Lars Mosander, also departed. This has led to questions over Signeul’s leadership style, but no one has said anything in public.
The coach
Anna Signeul is a very experienced head coach and took Scotland to the Euros for the first time in 2017. She left the post after 12 years later that summer to take charge of Finland. “Jesse Owens once said that if you think you are going to get beat, you will get beat. If you think you can win, you can win. And I believe in that,” she once said. The head coach’s contract expires at the end of the year and it is widely expected that she will leave after the Euros.
Star player
Natalia Kuikka has been chosen as Finland’s player of the year three times already, and she is only 26 years old. An extremely versatile player, she started her career in attacking positions, playing as a left winger at the 2013 Euros at the age of 17, for example. For her club team, Portland Thorns, she plays right wing-back but Signeul has moved her to central defence for her country. She is a graduate criminologist from Florida State University, where she won the NCAA championship and was voted into the Guardian’s top 100 female players of the year in 2020. No other Finnish player has made that list. “My time in Sweden was my first glimpse into being a professional football player,” she has said. “It really taught me how to be one, how to put myself first and what it means to be a pro player.”
Natalia Kuikka: versatile defender, former winger and graduate criminologist. Photograph: Rico Brouwer/Soccrates Images/Getty Images
Wildcard
Eveliina Summanen is the next Anne Mäkinen in the Finnish midfield, one of the few younger players to find a place in Signeul’s starting lineup. A box-to-box player who tackles hard, she has a quality shot and is also good in the air, despite not being the tallest. Summanen took a huge step in January when she moved from Kristianstad in Sweden to Tottenham. A key player for the future, she scored the only goal when Finland beat Scotland 1-0 in their Helsinki qualifier. “That was the most important goal of my career so far,” she said after the match.
All-time hero
For her longevity and goalscoring record, it has to be Laura Österberg Kalmari. She represented Finland between 1996 and 2011, winning 130 caps. Only Westerlund has more Finland caps than her. She is also second on the all-time list of Finland’s goalscorers (behind Sällström) with 41. At club level, she won the Women’s Champions League in 2003 and 2004 with Umeå IK and finished her career in the NWSL. Now she lives in Stockholm, where she is a teacher and youth football coach.
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Euro history
Finland made their tournament debut in 2005 and faced England at what is now the Etihad Stadium. They gave the hosts a run for their money, coming back from 2-0 down to equalise before Karen Carney’s late winner. The Finns drew with Sweden and beat Denmark to qualify for the semi-finals, their best ever result. There, though, Germany were too strong, winning 4-1. Four years later Finland hosted the tournament and progressed serenely to the quarters where they lost to England, the final score again 3-2. In 2013, Finland needed to beat Denmark in their last group game to reach the knockout stage but could only draw.
Realistic aim this summer
Finland are in a very tough group, with Spain and Germany regarded as world-class and Denmark reaching the final of the last Euros. If Finland get more than one point it would be a great achievement and maybe history is on their side – they have been drawn with Denmark in all three finals appearances and are yet to lose against them.
Ville Väänänen writes for STT in Finland. Follow him on Twitter here.