Finland

The Russian national team achieved its first victory in the European Championship. Four days after the 3-0 defeat to Belgium, Spurnaga beat Finland 1-0 – the ball was in the Russians’ goal after less than 180 seconds.

Russia celebrates: Alexei Miranchuk put Spornaga on top.
Getty Images

Who knows how the match would have ended had the goal counted. Lu Bohjanpalo did not miss the field in the third minute before sending a cross from Raitala into the Russian net. Perhaps Spornaga would have had a more difficult time. Perhaps she wouldn’t have taken the lead and Finland would have made the second coup in their second group win.

As it were, Finland played a good game, but in the end had to bow out. Russia held a large part of the game for long periods (sometimes around two-thirds of ball possession) and ultimately scored a deserved victory.

game score

There was a fight for every ball, but in the beginning there weren’t any fun highlights. After the break, it became more lively as Finland took more risks and opened up space.

3,5

Goals and cards

0: 1Al Miranchuk (45 min, left-footed shot, Dziuba)

Hradec2,5 – Hopes4 , araguri4,5O’Shaughnessy4,5 – Raitala3,5 , oronen3,5, Schuller4 , room3 , lod4 – goat4,5 , Pohjanpalo3,5

Russia

referee team

Danny McKelley
Holland

2,5

game info

Finland coach Marco Kanerva made only one change to his starting lineup after the 1-0 win over Denmark, replacing Sparf with Schöler. Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov swapped four times for 0:3 against Belgium, including goalkeeper: Safonov was a favorite over Shonin and was part of the starting lineup, as was Miranchuk on the right wing.

Miranchuk hits great – Fernandez falls

The 25-year-old from Atalanta Bergamo was one of the highlights of the Russian Wednesday afternoon in front of 34,067 spectators in St Petersburg. Already at the beginning he had Sbornaja lead on his foot (10) – he later succeeded: in the first half stoppage time Miranchuk moved the ball from ten meters to the corner – a great goal (45th minute). ).

At this point, Cherchesov had already transformed once. When attempting a header, Russian right-back Mario Fernandez landed so miserably on his back that he had to be taken off the field on a stretcher (26th position).

Russia leads the way

A shock moment for the Russian team – but it can’t be ruled out understandably. Sbornaja’s team dominated the match, but Golovin (52), Zemaldinov (66) and Kozyev (72) gave good chances.

Finland was rarely dangerous, but in the end it turned the game back into half of Russia. This again freed up space for the hosts – but Zimaldinov missed the best chance to score in the last minutes (90 + 3). It remains 1-0.

Russia has caught Finland on points and could face the Scandinavians in a long-distance duel for second place on the final day of the group: Finland will meet Belgium in St Petersburg on Monday (9pm), while Spurnaga will face Denmark in Copenhagen.