The Cypriot national football team went down 3-0 to Finland in their last friendly international match of the year at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia on Wednesday night.
There were no surprises in the starting lineup for the hosts as the national team coach Nikos Nioplias opted to start the match with the usual suspects in a 4-3-3 formation. Antonis Georgallides was in goal, with a four-defender line including Athos Solomou, Elias Charalambous, Dosa Junior and Valentinos Sielis. However, despite to what should have been a solid defence the visitors had no problems creating chances and they broke the deadlock 15 minutes after the kick-off through FC Schalke 04’s forward Teemu Pukki.
Sinisa Dobrasinovic, Marios Nicolaou and Vincent Laban failed to control the middle of the park in the opening stages of the match and Perparim Hetemaj doubled the visitors’ lead from the penalty spot just before half an hour mark.
Although the hosts had some good chances to score themselves, the defensive errors proved to be costly and Toni Kolehmainen set up the final score four minutes from time. Efstathios Aloneftis, Demetris Christofi and Georgios Efrem were Nioplias’ primary offensive threats, but they did not succeed in imposing themselves on the firm Finnish defence.