Denmark take on the visitors Finland in the round 1 match of UEFA Euro 2024 qualification. The match will be played on Thursday, February 23rd at Parken Stadium (Copenhagen).
Denmark received several blows last year. The failure in the Nations League was conditional: yes, they missed out on first place in the group to Croatia, losing both matches. But overall, there were good results, with victories not only over Austria, but also over France - twice! Before that, the Danes won the World Cup qualification extremely solidly, and their dramatic performance at Euro 2020, from Eriksen's collapse in the first round to Kane's scandalous goal in extra time in the semifinals, was memorable to everyone. But in Qatar, there was a clear failure. There, one of the potential favorites started with a 0-0 draw against the underdog, Tunisia. After that came a defeat to the French and, most importantly, a 0-1 loss to Australia in the key match. As a result, they didn't even make it out of the group! However, for now, Kaspar Hjulmand has not resigned or been fired. But it is obvious that the current qualifying cycle needs to be conducted at the highest level, especially since they will have to start without Vestergaard, Delaney, Dolberg, Yurary Poulsen, Cornelius, Skov, and most importantly, Eriksen.
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Finland will try to prove that they still maintain a high level. Progress under the current coach, Markku Kanerva, has been noticeable for some time, and the breakthrough was Euro 2020 - they managed to qualify directly. But after debuting at such a level, which ended only with participation in the group stage, Pukki and his team could not even come close to repeating it. Yes, they were not bad in the next cycle, ruining the nerves of the favorites, but in the end, they finished lower than France and Ukraine, fighting for third place with Bosnia. What is more concerning is last year's Nations League, where they were only able to take 1 point from a pair of matches against Bosnia, and the same was true with Romania, and they only beat the outsider of the quartet, Montenegro, in both matches. It should be noted that now Finland will have personnel losses, primarily in defense, where their most experienced defender, Uronen, will not be available. And Lam, Väisänen, and O'Shaughnessy each had 20+ appearances at this level - but now only two defensive players have accumulated that much. Considering that the Finns play pragmatically, as the "second fiddle," this could seriously backfire. Although their main stars, Gradel and Pukki, are in line.
The Danish team had 4 victories and a draw in their first 5 head-to-head matches. Then came that very match of the 1st round of the Euro, with the incident of Eriksen and the shocked colleagues of Christian in the extra time defeat. The Danes have enough motivation - for their 0-1 loss at the Euro, on a personal level, and after their failure at the World Cup. Considering the problems the Finns have in defense, we bet on the home team to win with a handicap of "-1.5 goals".
Prediction for the match: Denmark to win with -1.5 handicap.
