Finland's historic success, Italy’s ninth victory, and Krasnodar striker goal: Euro 2020 qualifier review

Success from the 33rd attempt

On Friday, November 15th, two more national teams - Sweden and Finland - secured a ticket to the final stage of Euro 2020. And if for “Tre Krunur” this success became quite everyday, then Suomi really went down in history.

However, a year ago, wards of Markku Kanerva successfully performed in the League of Nations and secured their participation in the mini-tournament for reaching the continent's championship.

Then few believed that the team was able to qualify for the European Championship directly. However, this is exactly what happened.

The Finns confidently qualified, losing only to Italy (twice) and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and secured second place in the group for the match before the finish. Finally, everything became clear after a home victory over Liechtenstein - 3-0. Double designed Teemu Pukki. The Norwich striker with nine goals caught up with Artyom Dziubu in the scorers of the qualifying tournament.

The Finnish team for the first time in history made its way to a major tournament. To do this, she needed 33 attempts. More (34) was made only by Luxembourg, which has not yet reached the World and European Championships.

Italy record

In turn, the Italian team won the ninth consecutive victory in group J. This time, Roberto Mancini's wards on the road did not leave a single chance to the Bosnians, who entered the field demoralized after the Finns won and lost their last chance to travel to the Euro.

As a result, according to the results of the first half, “Squadra Azzurra” led - 2: 0. The account in the 21st minute was opened by the defender Francesco Acherbi, who connected to the attack. And soon, Lorenzo Insigne took advantage of the rebound from the opponent’s feet and sent the second ball into the opponents' goal.

After the break, the Italians brought the matter to defeat thanks to the exact blow of Andrea Belotti. Thus, Italians for the first time in history won ten consecutive matches in all tournaments.

The only fly in the ointment for the favorite was the injury to the main goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma at the very end of the meeting. Instead, Atalanta goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini, who made his debut as part of the national team, entered the game.

Berg Performance

Sweden, as already mentioned, became the 12th team to secure its participation in the final stage of the Euro. In a decisive, in fact, match in the fight for second place in Group F, the Scandinavians in Bucharest met Romania and won an unexpectedly easy victory.

The hosts rushed to the attack from the first minutes, forgetting about the rear, for which they immediately paid. By the middle of the first half, the guests scored twice. The protagonist of the confrontation was the forward of “Krasnodar” Marcus Berg, who opened the scoring in the 18th minute, and then helped Robin Kayson excel.

Now the experienced striker has 21 goals for the national team, and in this indicator he is second only to Zlatan Ibrahimovic (61), Henrik Larsson (29), Marcus Allback (26) and Kenneth Anderson (22).

Seven balls of Spain

Spain in the same group defeated Malta and secured first place in the standings. Football “dwarf" heroically kept its goal intact until the middle of the first half, but as a result conceded seven unanswered goals.

It is curious that in the “Red Fury” all the goals were scored by different players. One of them is on the account of the national team debutant, player of Zagreb Dynamo Daniel Olmo. “Villarreal” midfielder Gerar Moreno showed himself most vividly, scoring four points for performance.

Unyielding Georgia

A worthy game in St. Gallen was played by the Georgian national team, which had no chance of reaching the final stage of Euro 2020. However, this did not stop the wards of Vladimir Weiss almost put the bandwagon of Switzerland.

The “Alpines” frantically stormed the gates of the unyielding guests and delivered 23 attacks on them, but they managed to score only ten minutes before the end of the meeting. Moreover, the author of the most important ball was the 22-year-old national team debut Cedric Itten. The young striker of the modest “St. Gallen” came on as a substitute in the very end and managed to excel.

The most important victory allowed Switzerland to take second place in Group D. The Danes who defeated Gibraltar took the first place, and the Irish came in the third, who in the last match would receive the Scarlet Guard.

Thus, the team of Vladimir Petkovich practically secured his participation in the final stage of the championship of the continent, because in the final match he will meet with Gibraltar and will probably score three points.