Armenia vs Finland Predictions

Armenia’s 2-1 defeat in Bosnia on Saturday wasn’t the ideal start to their EURO 2020 qualifying campaign. With only the top two progressing, Armenia are now big underdogs to overtake giants Italy and are already disadvantaged in the fight for the second qualifying spot against other favourites Bosnia and Greece. Upcoming home games against Finland and Liechtenstein are reasonable opportunities to improve their situation within Group J, so they’ll be looking for more inspiration from star man Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who scored their only goal last game.

Finland will be no easy opposition though. The Finns have a form player of their own in Norwich striker Teemu Pukki – the only player in the squad with more than 10 goals to his name – and their organised defence saw them keep Italy to just two goals in their 2-0 defeat on Saturday. Finland’s current run of three competitive losses on the bounce is their worst spell since late 2016 – before that they were unbeaten in nine (W7 D2) – which is probably why the bookies fancy them on Tuesday.

For us, though, the price on ‘Both Teams to Score’ looks better. Admittedly, not many of Finland’s recent games have seen that bet land, but there are a number of reasons we feel it may against Armenia. Looking over the hosts’ record, a bet in that market has landed in each of their last three competitive outings – a 6-2 win in Gibraltar, a 2-2 draw away to Liechtenstein and a 2-1 in Bosnia over the weekend. Armenia also conceded in each of their UEFA Nations League home legs against Gibraltar and Liechtenstein before that – two of the weakest offenses in world football.

Finland’s attack is by no means the most dangerous in Europe, but it’s much better than those mentioned. It’s not unreasonable, therefore, to imagine them scoring, but the same applies vice-versa. Armenia have scored 13 goals over their last four matches and the Finns have kept just one clean sheet away competitively since 2015. Finland’s matches don’t, however, get too out of hand that often. Armenia’s form and home advantage does lead us to think they’ll get something from this game, but given that they’ve never beaten Finland, we’re backing this one to end deadlocked. Our prediction: a 1-1 draw.