Finland vs Greece prediction: EUROPE: UEFA Nations League – League B betting tips on match 2024-11-16 17:00.
[p]It’s been a UEFA Nations League (UNL) campaign to forget for Finland, who have lost all five of their matches so far in Group B2, with Thursday’s 1-0 defeat to the Republic of Ireland confirming their relegation to League C. It was a night on which nothing went right for Markku Kanerva’s side, as they saw a penalty saved and twice hit the woodwork to extend their winless run to seven internationals (D1, L6).[/p]
[p]Their last victory did at least come at home – in March against Estonia (2-1) – and until this campaign, they’d never previously lost back-to-back UNL fixtures that they’d hosted. And as the Eagle Owls have never tasted defeat in a H2H on their own patch against Greece (W5, D3), they’ll be extra keen to avoid setting more unwanted records, with the prospect of going pointless in a UNL season for the first time in their history a distinct possibility.[/p]
[p]Greece still harbour ambitions of winning the group despite losing 3-0 to England on Thursday – just their second defeat in their last eight competitive matches (W5, D1). A promotion play-off place is guaranteed, but they must better the Three Lions’ result against Ireland if they are to earn automatic promotion to League A.[/p]
[p]It’s a tall order, especially given their poor record in Finland, but Greece have at least won their last three games on foreign soil all while scoring exactly twice each time. That includes a notably 2-1 win against England at Wembley last month, so being the away side is unlikely to faze them too much, as they’ve also only lost one of their last eight UNL fixtures on the road (W6, D1).[/p]
[p]Key battle: Defender Arttu Hoskonen was the last player to score for Finland, so with that and his last three club goals all coming via headers, he’ll be a threat at set-pieces. At the other end though, he’ll have to contend with Fotis Ioannidis, who netted twice in Greece’s 3-0 H2H win in September and hasn’t been on the losing side in any of his four international goalscoring appearances (W3, D1).[/p]
[p]Hot stat: There have been 5+ yellow cards shown in four of Greece’s last five internationals (W4, L1).[/p]
[p][i]Written by John Pennington[/i][/p]