Wales vs Finland

Wales-Finland are set to lock horns in a high-stakes Euro 2024 qualifying playoff semi-finals at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Wales’ fragile hopes of securing their third consecutive European Championship appearance hang by a thread. The same goes for manager Rob Page’s job, even though he has mustered a morale-boosting six-game unbeaten streak in the build-up to this ‘make or break’ contest (W3, D3). But well-adept to playoff dreads, the Dragons saw off Austria and Ukraine en route to only their second-ever World Cup in 2022, increasing their hopes of landing a coveted place in Euro 2024 Group D alongside the Netherlands, Austria, and France. Both those victories came at the Cardiff City Stadium, where Wales have only lost one Euro qualifier since March 2011 (W10, D4). That’s a significant encouragement, as is the fact they’re unbeaten in their last four meetings with Finland (W2, D2).

On the other hand, Finland could reach their second successive Euros despite a topsy-turvy qualifying campaign (W6, L4). The visitors have won back-to-back Euro qualifiers ahead of this trip by an aggregate score of 6-1, yet both those triumphs came against teams stranded well below Wales in the FIFA men’s ranking. Nonetheless, buoyed by their recent upturn in form, Markku Kanerva’s men will be out to post their first victory against Wales since October 2009. They can draw confidence from winning three of their last four internationals on foreign soil (L1), even though all three victories yielded a single-goal margin. With their two most recent travels featuring over 2.5 goals, a high-scoring theme could be on the cards.