Northern Ireland will be looking to make it two wins out of two in their Euro 2024 Qualifying campaign as they are set to host Finland on Sunday evening at Windsor Park.
The home nation are currently ranked 59th in the Fifa Men’s rankings, the lowest that they have been ranked since 2014. Northern Ireland had only won one of their last seven international fixtures, however, they managed to get their qualifying campaign off to a winning start as NI beat San Marino comfortably.
Coming into this international break, Northern Ireland had not been in action since September 2022 in the nations league, where they lost 4-1 to Greece. This long period without action may leave the squad without chemistry or could give a breath of fresh air into the side given the fact of the youth that has been added to Michael O’Neill’s squad.
Northern Ireland got their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign off to a winning start on Thursday evening as they faced San Marino, the lowest-ranked national side in the world. Northern Ireland only managed to put two past San Marino as Dion Charles scored a goal either side of halftime.
Dion Charles will be looking to add to his international tally here after scoring his first and second international goals last time around. Charles has been impressing in League One so far this season and has netted 14 times for Bolton already this season.
Finland are currently ranked three places above Northern Ireland in the Fifa men’s rankings, in 56th place and they have been pretty consistent in this ranking over the past few years.
Unlike most European nations, Finland had been in action already this year as they faced Sweden and Estonia in friendlies at the beginning of the year. The Fins lost both of these games and failed to score on both occasions. This means that it has been three straight defeats for Finland and a further defeat on Sunday could put a serious dent in their ambitions to reach the Euro finals.
Finland got their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign off to a bad start as they were defeated 3-1 by Denmark on Thursday evening. Denmark, who are the runaway favourites to top group H were helped by a Rasmus højlund hattrick as they scored late on to ensure they would take all three points.
These two nations have been drawn in group H of the Euro 2024 qualifiers alongside Denmark, Slovenia and San Marino. On paper, this group seems to be wide open and Northern Ireland are currently priced @ 8/1 to reach the Euro finals, whilst Finland are priced @ evens.
These nations are inseparable at the bookies ahead of this weekend’s meeting, with both teams being priced @ 8/5 to record a victory, whilst a draw is currently priced @ 2/1. We are backing Teemu Pukki to score anytime because of his impeccable international record, being Finland’s top scorer of all time.