Our prediction for this match:
Finland
Match Time & Date:
26/03/2022
06:00 AM
Prediction: 2-0
Iceland
Estadio Enrique Roca will host Saturday’s friendly between Finland and Iceland, the two teams who failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup finals. The Finns aim to make amends for a 2-0 loss to France, and the bookies see them as slim favourites to win the first game of the year. As always, Norwich City attacker Teemu Pukki will lead the line for the hosts, while Hull City striker Marcus Forss should start from the bench.
The Icelanders, on the other hand, experienced all sorts of problems at the back in a 5-1 loss to South Korea, which is probably the main reason why home win should be considered. Finland defenders should have Bolton attacker Jon Dadi Bodvarsson at bay. You should know that the Finns emerged triumphant in the last meeting between the two sides (1-0).
Highlighted Player (Niklas Moisander):
Despite playing for Ajax during his youth career, Niklas Moisander began started playing for Finnish side TPS at senior level. However, after making 17 league appearances for the club in the 2002/2003 season, he returned to Ajax on 5 June, 2003. Moisander played for Jong Ajax in Beloften Eredivisie and in 2006 he joined Zwolle.
The Finnish defender signed for fellow Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar in 2008 and he spent four years at the club. In 2012 he returned to Ajax and he started playing for the Amsterdam Arena outfit on regular basis. After making 77 league appearances for Ajax between 2012 and 2015, he joined Sampdoria on March 2015 on a free transfer.
Moisander signed a three-year deal with the club and he played 22 league games for La Samp in the 2015/2016 Serie A campaign. At the end of the season he moved to Werder Bremen. The former Ajax footballer was born on 29 September, 1985 in Turku, Finland.
Highlighted Team (Iceland):
Iceland had little to no success during the first 60 years of entering the FIFA competitions, failing to qualify to a single major tournament in that period, but the team then went on to make tremendous progress at the start of the 21st century.
The Nordic side narrowly missed out on a place at the 2014 World Cup, losing in the play-off to Croatia, but they then enjoyed a thoroughly impressive qualifying campaign to reach the Euro 2016, taking 20 points from 10 matches to leave Turkey and Netherlands trailing in their wake.
As a result, the generation featuring players like Gylfi Sigurdsson, Aron Gunnarsson, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson and Emil Hallfredsson will go down as one of the most successful in the national team history and it could be quite some time before another team repeat their success. Even if he was only used as a bit-part player during the Euro 2016 qualifiers, Eidur Gudjohnsen has got to be mentioned as the first Icelandic footballer to have played for top European sides.
Arsenal
Nottingham Forest
Aston Villa
Crystal Palace 
Milan 
Juventus 
Man City
Tottenham
Celta Vigo 
Barcelona 
Southampton
Liverpool
