Mixed emotions for spot-on Sparv

Finland captain Tim Sparv experienced the highs and lows of tournament football on home turf at Örjans vall yesterday as he scored in a 2-1 defeat by England which leaves the debutants with it all to do in Group B.

Wild scenes
Belying their underdog status, Finland took the game to England from the outset and troubled Stuart Pearce's side with a series of balls over the top. It was from one such pass, in the 33rd minute, that Sparv cancelled out Lee Cattermole's 15th-minute opener from the penalty spot, after Michael Mancienne saw red for felling Berat Sadik. Cue wild scenes at the home of Halmstads BK, Sparv's Swedish club.

'Best feelings'
"Playing for Finland is the biggest thing for me and scoring for Finland in a competition like this ... it doesn't get any better," he told uefa.com. "I just wanted to jump over all the fences and celebrate with the fans after it – we had great support today, over 1,000 fans. When we sang the national anthem it was one of the best feelings I have had – it was like being in Finland, playing in front of our own crowd. I'm just disappointed we couldn't give them something to cheer about at the end of the game."

'A big side'
With England facing the prospect of playing almost an hour with ten men and Sadik looking menacingly effective, Finland justifiably felt the game was there for the taking. "When we came in at half-time we had high hopes because they were a man down, and we came from 1-0 down so we thought we could go on and win it," Sparv continued. "It was a very quiet dressing room afterwards and I really feel for the boys. We played a big side today and, well, it ended very disappointingly."

Reshuffle
Pearce got his tactics spot-on following Mancienne's dismissal, switching from 4-3-3 to a bold 4-3-2 with James Milner moved to right-back and Martin Cranie across to centre-half. The Portsmouth FC defender – a former housemate of Sparv's during their days in the Southampton FC academy – snuffed out Sadik to leave Finland without a focal point in attack. "We maybe needed more up front in the second half," said Sparv. "It's still hard playing with one man more because they can still defend with the whole team and it doesn't make it easier. I don't know what was missing but we couldn't find it."

Belief
Whatever that missing ingredient was, coach Markku Kanerva will have to find it quickly with a match against a Germany side who drew their opener 0-0 against Spain to come on Thursday. Is it a must-win game? "Yes. I think you can say that," Sparv concluded. "We need a win and I'm sure we'll get it if we believe in ourselves."