EURO 2020: Denmark vs Finland: the Finnish team has low chances of victory

Russia's UEFA EURO 2020 group stage opponents Denmark and Finland begin their way to the tournament with a head-to-head match in Copenhagen. Will home-field advantage help the Danish team start with a victory? It will! As well as many other factors.

Kasper Hjulmand's team approaches Euro 2020 if not as one of the favorites, then at least as a dark horse, a team that is capable of creating a sensation. The Danes have everything they need not just to advance from the group, but also to make the playoffs. The red guard squad is made up of top-class performers from the top championships. Kasper Schmeichel, Simon Kjaer, Christian Eriksen and now Andreas Christensen need no introduction.

Such a selection of players would be the envy of three-quarters of the teams starting the European Championship. And all the group stage matches these guys will play in their native Copenhagen - it seems that the chances of the Russian team to cling to the 2nd line in Group B are really quite small. What's more, the Belgians won't even have a chance against the Danes.

The very fact that the Suomi national team will play in the European Championship is already a celebration! This is the first major tournament in the history of the modest team. It is clear that this historic success was not achieved from anything. Continuity of generations and long hard work in the same direction - this is the working recipe from Finnish soccer. Coach Markku Kanerva is in his 6th year at the helm of the national team, and before that, the specialist was on the national team staff as an assistant for another 5 years.

The conventional stars of Finland are, of course, Teemu Pukki, the English Norwich forward; and the duo from Bayer Leverkusen - goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky and striker with a difficult to pronounce surname Joel Pohjanpalo. Overall, the Finns have proven more than once in recent years that they can put up a fight against any opponent. Will, they upset anyone at the Euros? Quite possibly, but, bitter as it may be, for some reason it seems that it will happen in the second round of the group stage.

The match between Denmark and Finland at the European Championship, even in soccer, is not an event to complicate things and make things up. The Danish team will surely outplay the humble guests. We can't expect a straightforward route, but the Danes must demonstrate their class by playing defense and taking their chances offensively, as they know how to do. Fortunately, the level of their players allows them to work well against the Finns in both halves of the field. Our prediction is that Denmark will score 3 points.

• Danish victory with a handicap (-1.0) at odds of about 1.40;
• Total Goals under 1.5 at odds of about 2.75;
• Draw for about 4.0.