Good afternoon and welcome to our live text coverage of Finland vs Russia in Group B of Euro 2020 - the first game of Matchday 2! While Russia were subjected to a humbling 3-0 defeat at the hands of group favourites Belgium in their first game, Finland's major tournament debut was overshadowed by the saddening scenes of Denmark's Christian Eriksen suffering from a cardiac arrest on the pitch. The 1-0 win from that game thanks to Joel Pohjanpalo's goal puts Finland in a strong position to qualify from this group though. We will be bringing you all the build-up, highlights and talking points from the match today, so stay tuned ahead of kick-off at 14:00.

Euro 2024 / Group Stage

Gazprom Arena / 16.06.2021

Finland

Completed

Russia

A. Miranchuk(45+2')

Live

Live Updates

ByPete Sharland

Updated 16/06/2021 at 15:04 GMT

25'

Fernandes stays on the ground for a long while and eventually has to be substituted off for Vyacheslav Karavaev - another Zenit player who has the pleasure of playing in their club's home stadium today.

V. Karavaev

Russia

Off

M. Fernandes

Russia

23'

CLOSE!! Golovin crosses it in to Fernandes, who ends up on the ground after heading it and the ball falls to Dzyuba, whose poor first touch causes the ball to roll out for a goal kick.

22'

Kamara is booked for a late challenge on Zobnin, thus picking up the first card of the game.

Yellow card

G. Kamara

Finland

Yellow Cards1

Fouls1

Fouls against1

Free Kicks1

22'

Fantastic Twitter thread giving the run-down on this Finland side from sports journalist and lover of all things Finnish, Alex Seftel.

20'

CHANCE!! Lod threads it through to the dangerman Pohjanpalo, whose shot is blocked by a valiant challenge from Diveev and it's out for a corner.

18'

Finland aren't committing too many attackers forward and it's allowing Russia to continue applying pressure.

An opportunity presents itself for Finland on the break though, with Pohjanpalo dinking the ball over the defence for Pukki to run on to. However, Safonov raced out of goal to head the pass clear.

15'

Pohjanpalo causing trouble again! He drives into the box, passes on shooting with his left but is swarmed by several Russia defenders who prevent him from getting a shot away at all.

13'

Russia have been all action in midfield after Finland's disallowed goal. This time Dzyuba's effort is deflected onto the post, but it wouldn't have stood anyway as he's whistled for offside.

10'

CHANCE!! The unmarked Ozdoev has the whole goal at his mercy yet somehow blasts it over after a clever pass from Miranchuk.

Very big miss from Russia.

Dzyuba and Miranchuk play a bit of head tennis in the Finland goalmouth, but the defence manages to hack it away.

GOAL DISALLOWED!!

Hang on, it's just been chalked off! So much drama already as VAR comes into play to rule out Finland's opening goal for offside.

GOAL!!! Pohjanpalo's done it again for Finland!

Russia make yet another defensive error, as Raitala intercepts a pass on the right wing before whipping in a delightful cross for Pohjanpalo to head home.

1st Half

KICK-OFF: And we're underway with the first game from matchday 2! Can Finland become the first team to book their ticket for the knockout stages?

HEAD TO HEAD

Russia have won all four of their previous encounters against Finland.

The most recent of those was a 3-0 away win in World Cup qualifying back in 2009.

Former Zenit and Sevilla striker Alexander Kerzhakov grabbed two of those three goals.

Classy from Finland!

RUSSIA TEAM NEWS

Stanislav Cherchesov boldly makes three changes to the XI who started the 3-0 loss to Belgium, while also altering the formation seemingly to a 4-3-3.

The 34 year-old goalkeeper Anton Shunin is dropped for FC Krasnodar's Matvey Safonov - a man twelve years younger whose two prior caps came in pre-tournament friendlies.

Russia's defence has also been freshened up with two younger faces in the shape of 21 year-old CSKA Moscow centre back Igor Diveev and Zenit's Daler Kuzyaev, who starts at left-back today after starting on the left wing against Belgium.

Yuri Zhirkov and Andrey Semonov have been dropped to make space for them.

Further forward, Atalanta's attacking midfielder Aleksey Miranchuk comes in to play alongside Aleksandr Golovin and Artem Dzyuba in what looks to be a front three.

FINLAND TEAM NEWS

It's a 3-5-2 again for The Eagle-owls, with Rasmus Schuller coming into central midfield in place of captain Tim Sparv their sole change from the 1-0 win over Denmark.

Veteran centre back Paulus Arajuuri will captain the side in Sparv's absence, while the duo of Teemu Pukki and Joel Pohjanpalo again lead the line together.

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