Overview
The 2-1 defeat to Greece was a heavy blow to England in many ways. Not only did their opponents take the top spot in the group, they also lost Bukayo Saka to injury. The Arsenal player is open to the possibility of playing in the away match in Finland.
The Three Lions struggled against Greece when coach Carsley fielded a super-attacking squad. However, the England players played too much.
Carsley's experiments with Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden in the false-striker role have been a complete failure, so he will definitely have to think about using a pure "number 9" like Solanke or Watkins in the upcoming match.
As for Finland, they have sunk to the bottom of the League B Group 2 standings. With three losses this season, Finland are likely to be relegated to League C.
The Nordic representatives will want to improve their performance in the coming time. However, they do not have much basis to think about gaining points against England, even though the "Three Lions" have many problems that cannot be solved at the present time.
England have never lost to Finland before, with six wins and two draws from eight matches. The Three Lions won 2-0 at home to Finland last month in the Nations League.
The Three Lions have scored 2 goals per match in their last 3 wins against Finland. Meanwhile, Finland have only failed to score in 2 of their last 6 matches.
Human resources situation
Finland have no significant absentees, with coach Markku Kanerva likely to start Joel Pohjanpalo instead of Teemu Pukk.
On the other side of the front line, Saka, Harry Kane and Jack Grealish are absent due to injury. In addition, Carsley will also make some personnel adjustments to improve the finishing of the "Three Lions" in this match.
Expected lineup:
Finland: Hradecky, Stahl, Hoskonen, Ivanov, Galvez, Walta, Schuller, Lod, Kamara, Keskinen, Pohjanpalo.
England: Pope, Alexander-Arnold, Stones, L. Cowill, Lewis, Rice, Gallagher, Palmer, Bellingham, Gordon, Watkins.
The match between Finland and England takes place at 23:00 on October 13 (Vietnam time).
