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Aleksei Miranchuk is happy about his goal to make it 1-0
Photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev / dpa
Russia clinched its first victory in the second home game at the European Football Championship in 2021.
After the 3-0 win against Belgium at the start, the Russian team defeated Finland 1-0 (1-0).
Aleksei Miranchuk scored the goal for the hosts in stoppage time in the first half (45 + 2 minutes).
On the third day of Group B Russia will face Denmark, Finland will have to play against Belgium.
Both Russia and Finland currently have three points and thus still have a good chance of reaching the round of 16.
As with the 1-0 (0-0) start, overshadowed by the drama about Denmark's player Christian Eriksen, Finland also got the first ball on the opposing goal against Russia.
And again the shooter was named Joel Pohjanpalo.
In contrast to the Finns' first ever European Championship game, the Union Berlin striker was offside when he scored his header (3rd).
Before and after that, the Russians were the team with more offensive urge.
With the exception of a great chance by Magomed Ozdoev (10th), the hosts didn't create any good chances to score.
There was a lack of precision on the last or penultimate pass.
Since Russia made some individual mistakes defensively, as they did against Belgium, the Finns lurking on the counterattack were more dangerous.
Shortly before the half-time whistle it was Miranchuk, who had three opponents in front of him about twelve meters from the goal, but did not have to enter the duel.
With a remarkable flick into the far upper corner, he brought his team into the lead (45th + 2nd)
After the break, Finland became more offensive, which gave Russia more space when in possession of the ball.
But the Russian defensive also offered plenty of room for development.
Teemu Pukki had chances to equalize (49./53.).
In the course of the second half, the Russians managed to keep their opponents away from their own goal.
Rifat Zhemaletdinov had the first good chance of scoring for the hosts, but the striker did not hit the ball properly when he finished (66th).
Shortly thereafter, Finland's goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky kept his team in the game with a strong save against Daler Kuzyaev (72nd).
Finland continued to try to attack, but the team no longer created a good chance of scoring.
Zhemaletdinov missed the big chance to 2-0 for Russia in stoppage time (90th + 3rd)
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