Finland vs Denmark prediction: EUROPE: Euro – Qualification betting tips on match 2023-09-09 16:00.
September’s international schedule opened in the best possible fashion for Finland, as Oliver Antman’s 78th-minute winner against Kazakhstan on Thursday propelled them to the top of the group with a record of four wins and one defeat. Those four victories have come in sequence and is in fact Finland’s joint-longest winning run of European Qualifiers (ECQ) games in this century, raising hopes of qualifying for just their second ever finals.
Just two more wins would equal their points tally from their last successful ECQ cycle, yet Nordic neighbours Denmark won’t make this easy, especially seeing as they have a two-point gap to close. Even so, Finland are stubborn in ECQ home games and have only conceded against the reigning European champions, Italy, across their last seven games, which amounts to over ten hours of play (W6, L1)!
An expected drubbing of San Marino (4-0) kept the Danes within touching distance of Finland ahead of this potentially pivotal battle. Despite Denmark’s superior world ranking, they have failed to keep clean sheets in five of the six games prior to the San Marino clash, but they may be confident here having only played two sides more often than Finland whilst boasting a 100% win-rate in ECQ H2Hs (W3).
Perhaps bringing Denmark back down to earth will be their questionable away record in ECQ action, as they have defeated only minnows Gibraltar on their travels across their last nine trips (W1, D5, L3) spanning back to 2014! The most recent two of those games in this cycle also saw them enter as short-priced favourites, going to show that their wealth of talent doesn’t necessarily translate into results.
Players to watch: Whilst Antman hit the winner last time out, he was also the man to score Finland’s only goal in their 3-1 defeat in the reverse fixture. Manchester United and Denmark star Rasmus Højlund scored his first senior international hat-trick in that game and now has six goals across just five career ECQ appearances!
Hot stat: Four of Finland’s five ECQ games during this cycle saw the half-time result replicated at full-time.