Finland vs Ukraine
World Cup Qualifiers – Europe (Group I)
Date: Sunday, 11th June 2017
Kick off at 17:00 UK/ 18:00 CET
Venue: Ratina Stadion, Tampere.
Finland Predicted Starting Line-up
Team News
Markku Kanerva has called up this squad for this match:
Goalkeepers: Hradecky, Joronen, Jaakola
Defenders: Moisander, Arkivuo, Raitala, Halsti, Uronen, Ojala, Saksela, Moren, Vaisanen
Midfielders: Hamalainen, Riski, Lod, Lam, Hetemaj, Yaghoubi, Jensen
Forwards: Pukki, Pohjanpalo, Markkanen
Key Man
Eintracht Frankfurt goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky might just find himself with an awful lot to do come Sunday's match against Ukraine. The shot stopper might just be Finland's best player right now, and that's a little scary to think of. It's good for them in a way, but it also shows how down they are on quality skill players at other positions. Hradecky is 27 years old and has come off a good season in the Bundesliga, and even reached the DFB Pokal final with his side. He'll need to continue that form if they are to stand a chance this weekend.
Team Form
Finland have four losses and a draw in the first half of the Group I campaign. They began with a 1-1 home draw with Kosovo before then losing 3-2 at Iceland. They followed that up with a 0-1 home loss to Croatia and then an away loss by the same score at Ukraine. Last time out, they lost at Turkey 2-0.
Expected Line-up: 4-4-2
Ukraine Predicted Starting Line-up
Team News
Legendary former striker Andriy Shevchenko has called in the following players for this match:
Goalkeepers: Pyatov, Lunin, Shevchenko
Defenders: Kucher, Rakitskiy, Butko, Morozyuk, Ordets, Sobol, Krvtsov, Matviyenko
Midfielders: Yarmolenko, Konoplyanka, Stepanenko, Sydorchuk, Kovalenko, Shakhov, Malinovskyi, Petryak, Malyshev, Tsyhankov, Shepelyev
Forwards: Seleznyov, Besyedin, Dovbyk
Key Man
Captain Andriy Yarmolenko is one of the attacking players that Ukraine can call upon. They might not be quite at the level of their legendary manager at attacking, but Yarmolenko and co. are still very good in terms of European football. There should be no let up in attack from them, especially as they know that this Finnish side isn't very good. They can go forward with confidence, and their captain is one of the men that can make the difference with his play from the wing. The long time Dynamo Kiev man has 29 goals in 68 appearances to give him a quite impressive total from the midfield.
Team Form
Ukraine have one loss, two wins, and two draws in their five matches so far. Their start saw them draw at home to Iceland 1-1 and then away at Turkey 2-2 before they collected a 3-0 result at home over Kosovo. A 1-0 home win over Finland followed, but they suffered defeat for the first time away to Croatia 1-0.
Expected Line-up: 4-2-3-1
Finland vs Ukraine: Head-to-head
Ukraine won the November’s reverse with 1-0 in Odessa. That was the only match between the two sides.
Finland vs Ukraine: Prediction
Finland is at the crossroads between the two generations. Lots of key players are retired and the team is entering the phase of rebuilding. They even failed to beat Kosovo which vividly proved that they are lacking firepower. On the other hand, Ukraine want to prove that the fiasco at EURO 2016 was just a fluke and qualify for the WC in Russia.
The motivation is without a doubt with Ukrainians, but also the quality gap between the two sides is pretty wide at the moment.
