Victorious Finland earn play-off spot
Friday, September 5, 2008
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Finland 2-1 Denmark
Finland survived a late surge in Turku to hold on for a win which booked their place in the play-offs for the 2009 UEFA European U21 Championship.
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Point needed
Finland won their opening five matches in Group 6 before losing 2-1 to Scotland last time out. The Scots briefly usurped their rivals at the top of the section by defeating Slovenia last night, only for the Scandinavians to re-establish their two-point advantage with this triumph, leaving them needing a point in Slovenia to win the section on Tuesday. Scotland also complete their fixtures in four days' time, when they travel to Denmark looking to secure one of the play-off spots available to the four best runners-up.
Party atmosphere
It took the home side 32 minutes to make their dominance pay at the Veritas Stadium, Mehmet Hetemaj scoring with a powerful finish after being teed up by Juha Hakola. The second goal arrived two minutes into the second half, Tomi Petrescu making no mistake after intercepting a poor pass from a Denmark player. Magnus Troest headed past Tomi Maanoja in the 80th minute to give the visitors hope, but they could not find another as the Finnish party began.