Finland and Spain set for first meeting

Spain's first meeting with Finland at Under-21 level will be a pivotal one as they seek to book their progress from Group B in Gothenburg. Juan Ramón López Caro's side need to beat already-eliminated Finland, hope England defeat Germany and engineer a four-goal swing to have any chance of progressing to the last four. 

• England are already through to the semi-finals after moving on to six points with a 2-0 victory over Spain in Gothenburg, where the Iberians had opened their account with a goalless draw against Germany three days earlier. Finland are out after defeats by ten-man England (2-1) and Germany (2-0) in Halmstad.

• The two countries may have never met before but they will be getting to know each other well given that following this tournament they will face each other again in the qualifying campaign for the 2011 finals.

• Should Germany and Spain finish level on points, goal difference and goals scored, then coefficient ranking will come into play. Based on points obtained divided by the number of matches played in qualifying for the 2007 and 2009 finals (group stage only), Spain's coefficient is superior, 3.400 to Germany's 2.700.

• Finland forward Teemu Pukki is a team-mate of Spain's Diego Capel at Sevilla FC. Pukki joined Sevilla from FC KooTeePee in 2007 and became only the second Finnish player to appear in the Spanish top flight, after Jari Litmanen at FC Barcelona, when he came on as a substitute in a 2-0 defeat by Real Racing Club on 25 January.

• Pukki spent the rest of the season playing for Sevilla's second team, Sevilla Atlético, for whom he made 17 second division appearances in 2008/09, scoring three goals.

• Pukki is not the only Finland player to have suffered defeat at the hands of a Racing side that includes Spain U21 pair Jonathan Pereira and Iván Marcano. Ville Jalasto, Tuomo Turunen and Jussi Vasara were all in the FC Honka Espoo team that suffered 1-0 defeats both at home and away against Racing in the UEFA Cup first round last year.

• Pereira scored the only goal of the first leg on 18 September 2008, while both he and Marcano featured for the Santander club in the second leg in Finland.

• Coach Markku Kanerva played in the senior Finland team that lost 2-0 in Spain in a friendly in November 1994.

• The head-to-head record between the countries at senior level is four wins for Spain, one for Finland and one draw. The senior sides last met in a goalless friendly draw in Helsinki in October 2007, a match which marked the Football Association of Finland's centenary.

• This match comes almost 40 years to the day since Finland beat Spain for the only time, in their first encounter in a FIFA World Cup qualifying tie in Helsinki. The Finns ran out 2-0 winners in that contest on 25 June 1969. 

Squad news

• "I'll use tennis terms now," Kanerva said after Finland's semi-final hopes were ended by Germany. "We came here to play three Grand Slam finals; we have lost two matches on a tie-break, but still have a chance against Spain."

• Kanerva had made one change to the XI that had started against England, replacing Jarno Parikka with Jussi Vasara as Kasper Hämäläinen shifted to a position behind lone striker Berat Sadik.

• Sadik (sore ankle), Jukka Rajtala (shin), Tim Sparv and Jonas Portin (muscle strains) all recovered from minor knocks to take on Germany.

• Prior to the England match Spain coach Juan Ramón López Caro had promised he and his staff would look carefully at "little details" in the aftermath of the Germany draw, and the results prompted four changes to his starting XI.

• Javi García and César Azpilicueta came into defence, Chico and Sergio Sánchez making way, while Mario Suárez was given the holding role in midfield and Adrián López – making his competitive debut – partnered Bojan Krkić up front. Sisi and Esteban Granero were omitted.

• "We made too many mistakes and England took advantage," said López Caro. "We just did not take our chances, and made too many mistakes in defence. I'm sure my players will show the right attitude against Finland; we're defending the colours of Spain."

• No Spain players were cautioned against England, although Raúl García and Marc Torrejón remain within a booking of a suspension having picked up yellow cards in the Germany draw.