Denmark kick off Group B of Euro 2020 as they welcome Finland to Parken Stadium, Copenhagen.
Whoever wins this game will go top of the group for a few hours at least ahead of Belgium’s clash against Russia.
Team News
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Denmark have no fresh injury concerns to report with familiar Premier League names in Kasper Schmeichel, Andreas Christiansen, Joachim Andersen, Jannik Vestergaard, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Brentford duo of Christian Norgaard plus Mathias Jensen all pushing for starts.
Finland have a full squad available for selection although Norwich City’s Teemu Pukki is considered a doubt as he continues to recover from a recent ankle injury, despite still being called up for selection.
Stat Attack
- This is Denmark’s first meeting against Finland in a major tournament.
- Denmark have avoided defeat in three of four meetings against Finland in all competitions this century (W2, D1, L1).
- Finland have won none of their last 20 away games against Denmark excluding 1996 Kings Cup which took place in Bangkok (D3, L17).
- Denmark have conceded just once in five matches in 2021, whilst scoring 17 goals during those games.
- Finland are looking to avoid failing to score in three consecutive matches for the first time since early 2016, when they went on a four match run without any goals and conceded 11 goals in that run.
Prediction
Denmark come into this tournament as perhaps one of the underdogs because they clearly haver the attacking quality to go far, yet aren’t spoken of as serious contenders despite conceding just once this calendar year.
Finland meanwhile are a traditional 4-4-2 attacking team and do boast two in-form strikers in Teemu Pukki and Marcus Forss, so will certainly provide some issues for Denmark’s defence if they can establish a foothold in this game.
I therefore do hope that we will see an entertaining encounter between these two teams but the Danish form is looking seriously good, so it will be hard to bet against them getting the win here.
Prediction: Denmark 2-1 Finland
