Finland 1 Ireland 2 FT: Nations League as it happened

The winning goal for Greece on a good night for Ireland.
Here are the Ireland player ratings by Malachy Clerkin:
[ Ireland player ratings: Liam Scales and Robbie Brady to the fore as Ireland beat Finland 2-1Opens in new window ]
Stay tuned for the match report and more coverage on Irish Times Sport. That’s all from me for tonight, good night!
Hallgrimsson on RTÉ: “First half, one mistake we were punished, but we played well. We built on that in the second half. Always good to have a win, we talk about confidence and it will help in that area. I think everybody felt we were doing better and better in training and I think it showed. We didn’t give them a lot of goalscoring chance. Overall, we should be happy with the performance, we need to start thinking about Greece.
“Mistakes are something that just happens in football, we were happy with what we were doing.”
Man of the match Robbie Brady: “It was up there [for my best moments], you can see the hard work lads are putting in. There is millions of pounds of young talent in that dressingroom. Delighted to get the win. Scales did amazing to get his head on that and score. Festy did brilliant when he came on.”
A crazy finish for England in their match against Greece. It had seemed Greece were 2 up but the goal was ruled out, then Bellingham got an equaliser. But looks like Pavlidis scored the winner in the 94th minute. 2-1 Greece. Ireland only three points behind England in the group now. Hopefully the Greeks will be worn out for the game on Sunday after that historic win at Wembley.
Meanwhile in Helsinki:
Full-time: Finland 1 Ireland 2
Ireland have won a competitive game! Turning point for Heimir Hallgrímsson’s men? Robbie Brady with a goal and an assist in a starring display. Here was the winning goal:
How good was that from Ebosele?
Well then, a crazy few minutes, Ireland could have lost it with the Kallman header and then they go up and score. Three minutes stoppage time.
Finland 1 Ireland 2
87 mins: Inches away for Finland! Kallman with the header that goes thankfully just past the post after a good delivery from the free-kick. Looked like it was going in.
88 mins: GOAL FOR IRELAND! Brilliant play by Ebosele, trickery then great cross to back post. Composure by Brady, good touch then bang to the roof of the net!
Finland 1 Ireland 2
85 mins: Good intensity in the final stages of this one from both teams, attacking subs too with both teams going for a win. Good tackle by Brady to stop Finland, who has had a good game.
Finland 1 Ireland 1
81 mins: Ebosele and Idah are on for Ireland for one last push for a goal.
Finland 1 Ireland 1
78 mins: Chance for Finland, sloppy play by Collins, leaves the ball and confusion between him and Kelleher. He clears but Finland come and Galvez hits a cross-shot that meets nobody.
Finland 1 Ireland 1
Two strikers for Finland on, Kallman and a familiar face in Pukki, who used to play for Norwich in the Premier League.
75 mins: Corner for Finland, Walta with a whipped cross and Kelleher has to scramble it away. Ireland had a chance on the counter but Parrott loses the ball.
Finland 1 Ireland 1
71 mins: Jamie McGrath and Troy Parrott on for Evan Ferguson and Finn Azaz.
Finland 1 Ireland 1
69 mins: Good collect from Kelleher after a dangerous cross in. Ireland playing better but always the threat on the counter from Finland.
Finland 1 Ireland 1
A surprise score in the other game in the group – England losing to Greece 1-0 at Wembley.
64 mins: Big chance for Finland! Pohjanpalo gets the ball in the box, Cullen blocks and falls perfectly for Kamara at the edge of the box. He should score but he hits it wide of the post.
Finland 1 Ireland 1
61 mins: Ferguson with a shot at the keeper from outside the box after a nice one-touch pass to Ogbene, Ogbene shows his pace to beat Galvez. Ireland’s improved performance continues.
Finland 1 Ireland 1
57 mins: GOAL FOR IRELAND! Liam Scales with the header to the top corner after a great ball in by Robbie Brady. First goal for Ireland by Scales, brilliant header. Well deserved.
Finland 1 Ireland 1
52 mins: Ireland far more energetic this half, winning the ball back a few times. Ogbene puts in a dangerous cross, Ferguson misses the ball with the header under pressure.
Finland 1 Ireland 0
50 mins: Lively play by Ferguson outside the box, gets around the Finland defence but Schuller gets a last-ditch tackle in out for a corner. Then Scales wins the header to Szmodics but he swipes at it and can’t do better than straight at the keeper. Should do better, but a good chance.
Finland 1 Ireland 0
Second half begins.
47 mins: Good interception by Cullen, Knight plays to wing to Brady then ball falls to Knight who takes a decent shot from outside the box but comfortable enough save for Hradecky.
Finland 1 Ireland 0
Half-time: Finland 1 Ireland 0
Not terrible but not good either. An even game but one terrible calamity moment from Nathan Collins cost Ireland in the first half. A low-quality game overall, but enough in that to hope Ireland could get a goal in the second half. Although as Ken Early wrote, maybe hope is what is holding us back.
The goal again:
45 mins: Collins nearly sneaks in after a cross by Scales is bicycle kicked but Hradecky collects. Then another chance for Ireland, Szmodics lays off to Ferguson on the edge of the box and gets a better shot at the keeper but still a relatively comfortable save.
Finland 1 Ireland 0
42 mins: Finn Azaz takes a weak shot at the goalkeeper from outside the box, one of the few if any attempts by Ireland this half.
Finland 1 Ireland 0
37 mins: Azaz wins a free-kick in a dangerous area under pressure after a good pass by Szmodics. 30 yards out from goal. Brady straight at the wall.
Finland 1 Ireland 0
31 mins: Chance for Finland, ball in behind won by Finland against O’Shea by Keskinen who plays into Pohjanpalo, but his shot is straight at Kelleher.
Finland 1 Ireland 0
28 mins: Ireland haven’t been too bad here, some nice touches and passes by the likes of Szmodics and Brady but no chances for either team to speak of since the goal and disallowed goal.
Finland 1 Ireland 0
21 mins: Goal disallowed for Ireland! Brady hit a whipped cross from a free-kick just outside the box, Collins headed back well to Ferguson who stuck in the net from a few yards out. But he’s offside. Nearly zero to hero for Collins but it’s still 1-0 Finland.
Finland 1 Ireland 0
17 mins: Goal for Finland! Oh dear, big mistake by captain Nathan Collins. Pohjanpalo clinical and sticks it in the back of the net after Collins just passes to nobody and the striker runs on and finishes. Really poor.
Finland 1 Ireland 0
14 mins: Finland corner was strange, short and a lot of passes before a deep cross headed back but Ireland deal with it. Good run by the 19-year-old wing-back Galvez is dealt with by Ireland and after a period of Finland possession, Walta’s shot from 25 yards is powerfully hit but straight at Kelleher.
Finland 0 Ireland 0
10 mins: Good ball in by Azaz into the box and Ferguson couldn’t quite get to it but a bit better by Ireland, as Scales breaks the lines with a good pass.
Finland 0 Ireland 0
7 mins: Ireland not doing much on the ball so far but no chances to speak of for Finland yet. Azaz got the ball in midfield and tried to play in a dangerous Ogbene run but cut out.
Finland 0 Ireland 0
3 mins: Scales caught by the Finnish press momentarily, Brady rescues the situation but the Finns are starting high up the pitch. Ireland playing a classic 4-4-2 formation, two banks of four.
Finland 0 Ireland 0
Time for the national anthems, here are the teams again:
Ireland: Kelleher (Liverpool); O’Shea (Ipswich Town), Collins (Brentford), Scales (Celtic), Brady (Preston North End); Azaz (Middlesbrough), Cullen (Burnley), Knight (Bristol City); Ogbene (Ipswich Town), Ferguson (Brighton and Hove Albion), Szmodics (Ipswich Town).
Finland: Hradecky (Bayer Leverkusen); Ståhl (Djurgardens), Ivanov (Eintracht Braunschweig), Hoskonen (Cracovia), Galvez (LASK); Schüller (Djurgardens), Walta (IK Sirius), Kamara (Stade Rennais), Lod (Minnesota United), Keskinen (Aberdeen); Pohjanpalo (Venezia).
Amid one of the grimmest runs in Irish football history, Heimir Hallgrímsson needs to find a way to get a positive result in Thursday’s Nations League clash, writes Gavin Cummiskey in his match preview.
“For everybody else following Ireland, the “downward spiral” of results, as Hallgrímsson calls it, could gain unstoppable momentum at Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium.
Irish football has rarely experienced such a grim period in its 103-year history.
Hallgrímsson is working to “stop the bleeding” while his assistant coach John O’Shea believes the commentary around players is “too derogatory”.
[ Ireland desperate to relieve sinking feeling in FinlandOpens in new window ]
Hallgrimsson suggests it will be four at the back for this game:
Ken Early’s piece isn’t exactly uplifting, well depending on your philosophy and your perspective, but captures the mode of following Ireland at the moment pretty well.
“Maybe it’s time to look at this with fresh eyes and ask: have we been too down on the idea of losing? What if — instead of thinking of ourselves as trapped in unpleasant streaks or spirals — we gaze about with our third eye and recognise that we have attained a kind of peace? A place beyond desire, beyond hope, where nothing that happens to our team can hurt us any more.
There is a liberation to this. Expecting nothing, everything is a gift. You enter effortlessly into a state of universal gratitude. “Imagine we scored a goal,” you idly think, and suddenly you catch yourself smiling stupidly. You can get used to anything, including rock bottom. You get to know the terrain, you find the rocks where you can stretch out and get comfortable.”
[ Ken Early: Nations League games offer Ireland a chance to liberate ourselves by embracing football failureOpens in new window ]
A story of an Irish international who would have been front and centre of Irish plans if things had gone another way, Aaron Connolly has spoken this evening about his alcohol addiction on YouTube:
The Ireland team is out!
Ireland: Kelleher (Liverpool); O’Shea (Ipswich Town), Collins (Brentford), Scales (Celtic), Brady (Preston North End); Azaz (Middlesbrough), Cullen (Burnley), Knight (Bristol City); Ogbene (Ipswich Town), Ferguson (Brighton and Hove Albion), Szmodics (Ipswich Town).
Finland: Hradecky (Bayer Leverkusen); Ståhl (Djurgardens), Ivanov (Eintracht Braunschweig),Hoskonen (Cracovia), Galvez (LASK); Schüller (Djurgardens), Walta (IK Sirius), Kamara (Stade Rennais), Lod (Minnesota United), Keskinen (Aberdeen); Pohjanpalo (Venezia).
A very interesting summary of the opponent Finland in The Irish Times this week by James McDermott. His intro sets the tone:
“Irish fans impatiently waiting for a first qualification since 2016 can console themselves that things could always be much worse.
You could support Finland who took 82 years and 33 attempts before they finally qualified for their first, and only, major championship at Euro 2020, with only Luxembourg having a worse record (37 unsuccessful qualification campaigns and counting).”
Read more about Finland:
[ It could be worse for Irish soccer – we could be FinlandOpens in new window ]
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Republic of Ireland’s game against Finland, kick off is at 7.45pm at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. It has been a tough start for the new manager Heimir Hallgrímsson with two defeats at home to England and Greece in their Nations League group without scoring a goal. It continued a dismal run of defeats in competitive matches, Ireland have lost the their last eight “serious” games, not including matches against Gibraltar.
Will Smallbone is missing for this one but Josh Cullen should come back into the side as Ireland really need to at least score to get the fans hopes up. It is difficult to be optimistic when they have failed to score in five of their six games this year. Luckily for Ireland, Finland are also not in the best shape they’ve ever been in and are actually behind Ireland in the table courtesy of conceding a goal extra in their two games against Greece and England. So this game has the feelings of a relegation six-pointer already, in only the third game of League B Group 2.
The teams will be published here when they come.