Finland reaches European Top 20 in the FIFAe Nations Series

Last weekend, the Finnish FIFA national team participated in the FIFAe Nations Series Main Stage and managed to pave their way into the European Top 20 with a win over Belgium in the Knock-out stage.

The FIFAe Nations Series Main Stage was played during Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week, and after a successful run in the group stage on Thursday and Friday, Finland finished 3rd in their Group A, matching them against Group C 2nd seed Belgium in the Knock-out stage. Belgium is known as a great team and previous matches against them had been very tough, putting Finland in a small underdog position heading into the big double-header on Saturday. The eventual winner would be decided based on aggregate score from both matches. 

The Finnish team, consisting of Jesse @Kossu72 Kosamo, Jeremias @jerkosz Kosamo and Joona @Krompe Vaajala played well throughout the weekend and rotated playing turns regularly. Some consistency issues were evident especially early on both gamedays, but as the boys found their flow, they were tough to beat, manager Markus @MakezCR Moilanen was also very pleased with the performances of the weekend.

On Saturday evening agains Belgium, Finland had a great opportunity to reach the Top 20 by winning the double header. The first game started off a bit slow, but after the first ten minutes of play, Finland was able to generate the first dangerous chance of the game and against all expectations, Kossu managed to surprise the keeper with a shot inside the back post. After 15 minutes of play, Finland had taken the lead. After the first goal, Belgium upped the tempo and came at the Finns with high and intense pressure, but it didn't cause any trouble for the playing duo Krompe & Kossu. As the half-time whistle inched closer, Finland was yet again able to create an almost identical chance to their 1-0 goal, and a very accurate finish put the score at 2-0 to and the first half. The second half saw Finland hold possession and minimizing chances for Belgium, and they didn't get any closer than hitting the crossbar. At the very end of the game, the Finns managed to break down the Belgian defense with a beautiful passing play, cementing the end result of game one at 3-0.

The 3-0 Finnish lead heading into the second match put Belgium at a serious disadvantage and they needed to bring out their full arsenal in order to win. Once again, the hard pressure didn't yield any result and after 45 minutes of play, it was Finland who held the 1-0 lead after a cheeky lob finish by Kossu on a breakaway. The second half was a true scoring showdown. Belgium came out swinging and managed to score right out of the gate, and after that both teams traded chances and goals, seemingly on every attack. The second game finished at a 3-3 tie, meaning that Finland had won the matchup 6-3.

Finland has came a long road to the European Top 20 and the players recognize that there's still a lot of hard work ahead to reach the FIFAe Nations Series final tournament in Denmark at the end of July. The next stage is the European Playoffs between the 16th and 19th of June, out of which 11 European teams will advance to the Top 24 in the world.

"We're not done yet, now we're only one step closer to the goal we've set. Of course we're very satisfied with what we've done at the moment, but now we've got to start grinding again. We'll fix some small issues with our game and try to improve even more. If an when we get our bearings straight, we'll be able to take on anyone", Kossu summarizes.