UEFA European Championship Qualifying, Group H

Northern Ireland 0-1 Finland

MICHAEL O’Neill’s words of wisdom is to “keep believing” after his very young Northern Ireland side were defeated at Windsor Park by a goal to nil to Group H rivals Finland in their Euro 2026 qualifier.
 
The home-side slumped to a home defeat at the hands of group rivals Finland, but results elsewhere leave the fight for the top two spots wide open for O’Neill’s side as they look to reignite previous success of 2016 under the Ballymena man.
 
The hosts started brightly and piled the pressure on Finland with Paddy McNair’s early link-up with Conor Roberts gifting Northern Ireland an early corner which put early pressure on the away side.
 
In the sixth minute, Conor Bradley found space down the right-hand flank and drilled a cross which was picked up by Dion Charles who squared the ball in the hopes of finding Conor Washington lurking at the back-post, however Finland centre-half Ivanov was on hand to thump the ball clear of danger.
 
Clear-cut chances were few and far between as the stern Finnish backline looked set to shut-out O’Neill’s side, but the fast-paced tempo was clear to see in the opening 20 minutes of the game.
 
Finland got the only goal of the game on the half-hour mark when Kallman found the net after a cross met Norwich striker Teemu Pukki whose initial effort was scuffed into the path of his strike partner who buried his chance putting Finland a goal to the good.

Northern Ireland did have the ball in the net in the early stages of the second half, after Dion Charles prodded home a close-range effort that came from a corner, but the effort was ruled out after a handball from the Bolton striker had controlled the ball in the build-up.
 
Chances were scarce as the Finnish defence proved to be masters of the low-block and ensured their first away win of the campaign, which leaves the group very much all to play for.

Full-back and man of the match, Conor Bradley believed that luck was just not on Northern Ireland’s side on Sunday evening.
 
“I thought our performance was quite good and I feel that it was just a case of the ball wouldn’t go into the back of the net for us, you know they scored off their only real chance on goal which was very scrappy," he said afterwards.

Benjamin Kallman scores
2Gallery

Benjamin Kallman scores

"We had no luck as far as getting the small breaks that sometimes you need in football. Just one of them games that didn’t go our way, but we are hopeful we can bounce back in June.”
 
Bradley is confident that the side can bounce back during the summer qualifiers away to Denmark and at home to Eastern European minnows Kazakhstan.
 
“Results in this group already show that it really is a wide-open group, we have just got to not let lows like tonight take over the campaign, we have still 8 games to go including 4 here at Windsor that we look to be winning and it will be a chance to make our Euro Dream a reality.”
 
Northern Ireland will take on Denmark in Copenhagen on June 16, before welcoming Kazakhstan to Windsor Park on June 19

NORTHERN IRELAND: B Peacock-Farrell, C Bradley, D Ballard, C Cathcart, C Brown, S Charles, J Lewis, P McNair, C Washington, J Thompson, D Charles
 
Subs: C Hazard, T Hume G Saville, E Toal, C McGeehan, S Ferguson, I Price, M Kennedy, D Taylor, G Whyte, J Magennis, L Southwood
 
FINLAND: L Hradecky, N Alho, L Valsanen, R Ivanov, R Jensen, A Sulhonen, R Lod, G Kamara, R Schuller, B Kallman, T Pukki
 
Subs: J Joronen, V Sinisalo, M Tenho, P Soiri, M Peltola, N Pallas, R Taylor, F Jensen, K Kairinen, O Antman, M Forss, J Pohjanpalo

Goal: B Kallman 28'