Northern Ireland and Finland will lock horns in a lopsided Euro 2024 qualifier at Windsor Park in Belfast after experiencing contrasting fortunes in their Group H openers.
Northern Ireland didn’t break a sweat in their Group H curtain-raiser, easing past the world’s worst team, San Marino, 2-0 on the road to set the tone for a potentially history-defining qualifying campaign. Not only have ‘Norn Iron’ appeared at the Euro finals once in their history, but they failed to reach the tournament in 2020. In September 2022, Northern Ireland won their most recent home game, defeating Kosovo in the UEFA Nations League. However, they’ve not won back-to-back home matches since registering three in a row between March and September 2019. Michael O’Neil’s side could buck that trend here, considering they’ve not lost any of their last four encounters against Finland (W2, D2) since going down in a friendly in 2003.
Meanwhile, visiting Finland put on a fight on their day-one trip to Denmark but eventually slipped to a 3-1 defeat, extending their underwhelming winless run to five matches (D2, L3). While they must bounce back to rally their chances of securing a second consecutive Euro qualification for the first time in the nation’s history, that’s easier said than done. The visitors have lost their last three away matches in European Championship qualifying. On top of that, after being outclassed by Denmark on matchday one, Finland could lose their first two matches in qualifying for a major tournament for the first time since 2010. Considering they’ve lost three of their five away games against Northern Ireland (W1 D1), that seems inevitable.
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