England are heavy favourites to pick up a second UEFA Nations League victory in four days according to the Opta supercomputer. We look ahead to their Group B2 game at Wembley on Tuesday with our England vs Finland prediction and preview.
England vs Finland Stats: The Key Insights
- England are predicted to defeat Finland, with the Opta supercomputer giving them an 82.8% chance of winning at Wembley on Tuesday night.
- The Three Lions are unbeaten in all of their 11 previous meetings with Finland, winning nine and drawing two.
- England captain Harry Kane could win his 100th cap in this match, becoming just the 10th male to reach a century of appearances for the Three Lions.
England will look to make it two wins from two in UEFA Nations League Group B2 with victory over Finland at Wembley on Tuesday night. They got their campaign off to a fine start with a 2-0 win over the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on Saturday thanks to first-half goals from Declan Rice and Jack Grealish. Despite not adding to their total after half-time, England remained in control and will be confident of doing the same in this match.
Still interim manager but tipped to get the nod as the full-time coach in the upcoming months, Lee Carsley could become the first England men’s boss to win his first two competitive games since Fabio Capello in 2008. Indeed, the only managers to win their first two competitive fixtures without conceding a goal are Steve McClaren (2006), Ron Greenwood (1977) and Joe Mercer (1974).
The Three Lions did lose their last match at Wembley, though. That shock 1-0 defeat to Iceland ahead of Euro 2024 was Gareth Southgate’s final home game in charge of England; they haven’t lost back-to-back matches on home soil since November 2013 under Roy Hodgson (to Chile and Germany).
Finland’s Nations League campaign didn’t get off to such a great start, as they lost 3-0 to Greece in Piraeus. A Fotis Ioannidis brace came either side of a Benjamin Källman own goal as Finland went a third successive game without a win after previously drawing with Scotland (2-2) and losing to Portugal (4-2) in June.
It was also the first time since October-November 1989 (6-1 vs Germany, 3-0 vs Netherlands) that they’ve lost back-to-back competitive matches by three or more goals having been beaten 4-1 by Wales in March.
Teemu Pukki is well known to English fans after five seasons with Norwich City between 2018 and 2023, and he will likely offer the most threat to the England defence in this game. He has been directly involved in 12 goals in 18 appearances in the Nations League (eight goals and four assists), at least three times as many as any other Finland player (Robin Lod, 4).
England men’s captain and all-time top scorer Harry Kane will hope to be handed another start on Tuesday, bringing up his century of appearances for the national team. It would see him become just the 10th player to reach a century of games for the men’s team, and first since Wayne Rooney in November 2014. Only two players have scored in their 100th game for the Three Lions, with Rooney doing so versus Slovenia (2014) and Bobby Charlton netting versus Northern Ireland in April 1970.
England vs Finland Head-to-Head
England are unbeaten in all of their 11 previous meetings with Finland (W9 D2), only facing Bulgaria more often without ever suffering defeat (P12 W8 D4).
England will play Finland for the first time since a March 2001 World Cup qualifier, winning 2-1 in Sven-Göran Eriksson’s first competitive game in charge thanks to goals from Michael Owen and David Beckham an Anfield. Finland took the lead that day with Aki Riihilahti’s 26th-minute opener.
This will be their first meeting at Wembley Stadium since October 1984, in the old stadium, when Bobby Robson led England to a 5-0 victory.
Finland have only scored seven goals in 11 previous encounters with England and never more than once in a single game.
England vs Finland Prediction
England are heavy favourites with the Opta supercomputer for this meeting with Finland on Tuesday at Wembley.
Across the 10,000 pre-match simulations, England won 82.8% of the time, with Finland grabbing a win on just 6.5% of occasions. Even a draw feels unlikely in this match, with the scores ending level in just 10.7% of the sims before kick-off.
England vs Finland Squads
England
Dean Henderson, Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, John Stones, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Levi Colwill, Rico Lewis, Tino Livramento, Harry Maguire, Conor Gallagher, Kobbie Mainoo, Declan Rice, Morgan Gibbs-White, Angel Gomes, Jarrod Bowen, Eberechi Eze, Jack Grealish, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane, Noni Madueke, Bukayo Saka.
Interim head coach: Lee Carsley
Finland
Lukas Hradecky, Jesse Joronen, Viljami Sinisalo, Leo Väisänen, Robert Ivanov, Miro Tenho, Arttu Hoskonen, Tuomas Ollila, Tomas Galvez, Ilmari Niskanen, Adam Ståhl, Jere Uronen, Matti Peltola, Robin Lod, Urho Nissilä, Leo Walta, Fredrik Jensen, Glen Kamara, Kaan Kairinen, Rasmus Schüller, Benjamin Källman, Teemu Pukki, Oliver Antman, Joel Pohjanpalo, Santeri Haarala, Topi Keskinen.
Head coach: Markku Kanerva
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