Finland will look to build on a spectacular start to their UEFA Nations League campaign when Belarus visit the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Jacob Friis’s side swept San Marino aside 7-0 on Saturday, with Joel Pohjanpalo scoring the first hat-trick of the 2026-27 Nations League, while Belarus began their League C Group 1 campaign with a 2-0 defeat away to Albania.

With Albania also starting with three points, Finland have an early opportunity to strengthen their position in what already looks likely to become a battle between those two nations for top spot.

Finland finally have something to build on

Saturday’s result needs to be placed in context. San Marino are comfortably the weakest team in Group C1, and Finland were expected to win convincingly. The more important aspect of the performance was the ruthlessness with which they completed the job.

Finland dominated possession, registered 11 shots on target and scored seven times without reply. Pohjanpalo was at the centre of it. The Palermo striker scored three times to become the first player to register a hat-trick in this season’s Nations League, providing Finland with precisely the kind of reliable penalty-box presence they will need if they are to secure promotion back to League B.

For Friis, the result was particularly welcome after a difficult few months. Finland entered the Nations League having lost three successive matches. A penalty-shootout defeat against Cape Verde in March was followed by a 4-0 loss to Germany and a 2-1 defeat against Hungary.

Those results came against significantly stronger opposition than San Marino, but they nevertheless added to the disappointment of failing to qualify for the World Cup. Finland therefore needed a convincing start to this competition. They got one.

Tuesday should provide a much more useful indication of their prospects. Belarus are unlikely to give Finland anything approaching the space they enjoyed in Serravalle, and Friis’s team will have to demonstrate that they can create opportunities against a more compact defensive structure.

Pohjanpalo should again lead the attack. His international experience and ability inside the penalty area make him the obvious focal point, while Benjamin Källman and Adrian Svanbäck provide Friis with energetic options around him.

Svanbäck’s emergence is particularly interesting. Still early in his international career, he offers direct running and another dimension to a Finnish attack that has sometimes appeared overly dependent on its established forwards.

Midfield could again be built around Kaan Kairinen, Adam Markhiev and Leo Walta. Finland are without Skyttä and Pyyhtiä during this international window, but there is enough depth for Friis to field a technically capable midfield against opponents who may be content to concede possession for long periods.

The key will be patience. Belarus showed before the Nations League that they can be awkward opponents when allowed to defend deep and play on transitions. Finland cannot expect another early avalanche of chances simply because they scored seven on Saturday.

Home advantage should help. Finland have won three of their last four matches on home soil, and the Olympic Stadium has generally provided a more comfortable environment than their recent away assignments.

A second successive victory would also give them six points before Saturday’s home meeting with Albania, potentially turning the opening week of this campaign into an extremely productive one.

Belarus face a much tougher test of their progress

Belarus arrived at the Nations League with genuine reason for optimism. Viktor Goncharenko took charge in January and immediately oversaw an improvement in results. They entered Saturday’s match against Albania on a six-game unbeaten run and had won three of their previous four fixtures.

The problem is the level of opposition involved. Belarus’ victories this year have come against teams ranked outside the world’s top 80, while a 2-2 draw against Burkina Faso provided one of the more encouraging results against stronger opposition.

Albania represented a step up. Belarus were unable to deal with it. First-half goals from Kristjan Asllani and Ernest Muçi left Goncharenko’s side chasing the game, and they were unable to find a response after the interval.

The 2-0 defeat did not suddenly erase the progress made earlier in the year, but it provided a reminder of the challenge facing Belarus if they are to compete for promotion.

Their away record offers some encouragement. Belarus have lost only once away from home since October 2025, with victories against Cyprus and Armenia included in that period. Perhaps most impressively, they earned a 2-2 draw away to Denmark during World Cup qualifying last November.

That result demonstrated what Goncharenko’s team can do when their defensive organisation works and they make efficient use of limited attacking opportunities.

A similar approach is likely in Helsinki. Fedor Lapoukhov should continue in goal, with Zakhar Volkov and Ivan Tsikhamirau among the defensive options in front of him.

Max Ebong and Aleksandr Selyava can provide protection from midfield, while Valeriy Gromyko remains one of the players most capable of giving Belarus some creativity further forward.

Goncharenko also has German Barkovskiy available to lead the line. The greatest challenge will be finding a way to threaten Finland without sacrificing the defensive structure required to contain Pohjanpalo. Belarus managed little going forward against Albania, and another passive attacking performance would place enormous pressure on their defence.

There is also little margin for error in such a small group. Only four nations occupy Group C1, and with Finland and Albania both winning their opening matches, another Belarus defeat would leave them six points behind the Finns after only two rounds.

Their campaign would by no means be finished, but promotion would already become a difficult proposition. Finland should therefore expect something more ambitious than a team simply attempting to escape Helsinki with a respectable result.

Verdict

Finland’s 7-0 victory over San Marino should not be treated as evidence that all of their problems have suddenly disappeared.

Belarus are a substantial step up in quality and had been producing encouraging results under Goncharenko before Saturday’s defeat in Albania.

Even so, there are good reasons to favour the hosts. Finland have won three of their last four at home, Pohjanpalo arrives full of confidence after his hat-trick and Friis has enough attacking quality around him to create chances against a Belarus side that struggled when confronted by stronger opposition at the weekend.

This should be considerably tighter than Finland’s opening fixture, and Belarus are capable of making the evening uncomfortable.

But if Finland can reproduce the intensity and efficiency they showed against San Marino, they should have enough to make it six points from six.

Tip: Finland to win