Finland beat San Marino 7-2 in the UEFA Nations League at Helsinki, with Adrian Svanback scoring three times and Joel Pohjanpalo adding two goals and an assist. L. Walta and Daniel Håkans also joined in as Finland kept the pressure on from start to finish.
Finland's spread of scorers
Svanback struck in the 8th, 20th and 78th minutes. Pohjanpalo scored in the 36th and 42nd minutes before setting up another, which gave Finland a second scorer with a decisive hand in the result. Walta's contribution was a goal and an assist, and Håkans came off the bench in the 56th minute before scoring in the 70th.
That kind of spread scoring is the main point here. Finland did not lean on one player or one burst, and the match finished with four different scorers on the home side. Finland vs San Marino was one of those games where the gap showed up quickly, then kept widening.
San Marino's rare reply
San Marino's two goals came from Nicola Nanni, who scored a 26th-minute penalty and then added another in the 76th minute. A Bola noted that San Marino have now scored twice in a match only for the fourth time in their history, which gives the defeat a small historical footnote even if the result itself was never in doubt.
The milestone does not change the scale of the loss. San Marino are still the side that finished last in League C Group A with zero points and 25 goals conceded, while Finland sit third with 10 points from six matches. The scoreline says plenty about the match, but the group table still says this was a mixed campaign for Finland rather than a dominant one.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →
