Greece vs Finland prediction: EUROPE: UEFA Nations League – League B betting tips on match 2024-09-06 18:45.
[p]New Greece manager Ivan Jovanović has set his sights on endearing himself to the Greek faithful by guiding them to their first major international tournament in 12 years as he prepares to make his debut in the dugout. The former Panathinaikos boss has replaced Gus Poyet, who left his role after the Blue and Whites missed out on a place at UEFA Euro 2024, and Jovanović says that it is time to restore the country’s “pride” in their football team.[/p]
[p]A fall-back option for qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup comes through the UEFA Nations League (UNL), where Greece have been promoted to League B for the first time. Having been grouped with England, the Republic of Ireland and Finland, few people are giving them a chance of coming out in top spot, but a run of six clean sheets from their last nine outings shows they’ll be no pushovers (W5, D1, L3).[/p]
[p]History suggests they have a strong chance of extending that run against their Scandinavian visitors, who have lost seven of the previous eight away H2Hs (W1). That is not good news for the Eagle-Owls, who have also tasted defeat in five of their last nine fixtures (W3, D1), a run that includes a 4-1 hammering to Wales in their UEFA European Championship play-off semi-final.[/p]
[p]Long-serving head coach Markku Kanerva, who is a former school teacher, cannot see a repeat of that scoreline though, insisting he “expects success”. He has every reason to be confident, given Finland, who are entering their third tournament in League B, have won seven of their last 13 competitive internationals on the road (L6), with five of those wins coming with an accompanying clean sheet.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Kostas Tsimikas is one of three English Premier League based players in the Greece squad, and the Liverpool man has helped his country keep a clean sheet in seven of his ten UNL appearances (W7, D1, L2). Finland striker Joel Pohjanpalo will be out to ensure he doesn’t extend that record – he’s tenth in their all-time top goalscorer list with 15 international goals, 11 of which have served as the first or last of the game.[/p]
[p]Hot streak: Finland have never lost a UNL game in which they have scored first (W10, D2).[/p]
[p][i]Written by Matt Jones[/i][/p]