Finland vs. Russia Predictions: A tie is a tasty price
Finland are coming off that victory over Denmark in that game that should never have been finished on Saturday lunchtime but can they win again? Neil Monnery has a look...
Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
Date: Wednesday, June 16.
Kick Off Time: 9AM ET
TV: ESPN
Finland’s 1-0 win over Denmark in their opening game is tough to put any stock in. Let’s not beat around the bush - that game should never have been restarted after the Christian Eriksen incident and there is no way the Danish players were in any form of mind set to play the game.
Yet the result is in the books and when the game was initially suspended - it was 0-0 and Finland looked solid enough to potentially hold on for a more than decent point.
Russia got shellacked by Belgium in their opening game but there is little to no disgrace in that. The Belgian side are one of the best at Euro 2020 and came into the tournament as the number one ranked team in the world. Yet whilst it was no disgrace, they never looked remotely competitive and now are in a position where they really need to beat the supposed weakest side in the group.
Veteran left-lack Yuri Zhirkov left that Belgium game with a calf injury and he isn’t expected to be available on Wednesday. Daler Kuzyaev will also miss out after suffering a rather nasty looking clash of heads in that game. So Russia are expected to make at least two changes to their starting XI.
Teemu Pukki might not be fully fit for Finland but they are likely to stick with him up front. His presence there will give the team confidence that if they create a good chance then their talisman will finish it.
A draw for Finland will all but guarantee their progress to the knockout stage of the tournament. Despite the circumstances surrounding that Denmark game, I was more than impressed with how they played for that opening 41 minutes, which is all I think we can look at. This means I think they’ll get something out of this game as well.
Picks: Russia are a very short price to win this game but I’m more than happy to play the tie at +290.
Five Russian players are at the top of the anytime scorer market and this indicates the Sportsbooks really like Russia. This means Teemu Pukki is a pretty big +350 to score anytime. I’ll have a bit of that as well.
So two pretty big prices that I think provide value.
