Aron Wright - June 6, 2018
Finland vs Belarus
International Friendlies
Date: Saturday, 9 June 2018
Kick-Off at 17:00 UK / 18:00 CET
Venue: Ratinan Stadion, Tampere.
Belarus come into the June set of friendly internationals against Hungary and Finland in high spirits following their back-to-back clean sheet wins over Azerbaijan and Slovenia in March. Can they keep such form going and produce a sort of a surprise on Saturday at Ratinan Stadion?
Finland are by no means unbeatable opposition, but they will be a tough nut to crack for the Belarusian side after a decent streak of results in the recent period. To be fair, Finnish opposition in friendlies included the likes of Estonia, Jordan, FYR Macedonia and Malta before the June set of outings. Nevertheless, one just has to respect the fine streak Markku Kanerva’s troops have earned ever since September last year going unbeaten in eight consecutive matches (including clashes with Iceland, Kosovo, Croatia and Turkey at the end of the WC qualifying campaign).
Belarusian manager Igor Kriushenko clearly did a phenomenal job on improving his team’s defensive line which kept consecutive clean sheets in March. Finland are by no means a side with a n immense talent in the final third and the clash should really provide an opportunity for the visitors to maintain such a fine thread and keep things tight at the back once again.
The hosts have already been in action in June, but they fell 2-0 away at Romania ending the streak of eight matches without a defeat there. However, Kanerva’s men were also tough to break down in their most recent matches which is why we fancy the Under 2.5 goals FT bet at the odds of 1.60 as the main betting call.
Even though the hosts head into the game as slight favourites, we see the draw as the bet with the highest value, priced up at 3.30.