By Damian Spellman, PA, Helsinki
Robbie Brady and Liam Scales spared Nathan Collins’ blushes as the Republic of Ireland fought back to claim Nations League victory in Finland.
Preston defender Brady smashed home an 88th-minute winner to snatch a 2-1 win at Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium after Liam Scales had cancelled out Joel Pohjanpalo’s first-half opener with his first senior international goal.
No-one will have been more relieved at their intervention than Ireland skipper Collins, whose blunder had set up Venezia striker Pohjanpalo.
For Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson, who launched his reign with back-to-back defeats by England and Greece last month, a first win – just a third for the Republic in 19 Nations League fixtures – in what opposite number Markku Kanerva had described as a potential relegation decider in League B2, will have come as a welcome boost.
Scales started in a new-look back-four in which left-sided Dara O’Shea was asked to line up at right-back against a Finland team missing experienced striker Teemu Pukki, who was named only among the substitutes.
Neither side was able to create anything of note until Chiedozie Ogbene combined with Finn Azaz, who whipped in a 10th-minute cross which was hacked away by home defender Adam Stahl.
Collins blocked Robin Lod’s shot on the turn two minutes later and full-back Tomas Galvez delivered a dangerous ball into the Irish box from the left as the Finns responded, and Caoimhin Kelleher had to make the game’s first save, collecting Leo Walta’s dipping effort after it skipped off the turf on its way to goal.
However, the hosts were handed a 17th-minute lead when Collins left his back-pass to Kelleher woefully short and Pohjanpalo pounced to beat the keeper with ease.
The visitors thought they had levelled within four minutes when Evan Ferguson converted Collins’ knock-down from a Brady free-kick, but the flag had gone up in the meantime.
Josh Cullen and Jason Knight were seeing plenty of the ball in the middle of the field, but with the hosts well organised, they were struggling to find a way through the massed ranks of white shirts and their most promising moments came from the link-up between O’Shea, Azaz and Ogbene down the right.
Kelleher was relieved to see Pohjanpalo stab a weak shot straight at him after Topi Keskinen had got the better of O’Shea in a foot race, and Ireland’s mood would not have improved when Brady drilled a free-kick from an inviting position straight into the defensive wall after Azaz had been bundled over by Rasmus Schuller 25 yards out.
Azaz forced keeper Lukas Hradecky into his first save of the game, albeit a regulation one, four minutes before the break and Sammie Szmodics caused consternation in the Finnish penalty area with a speculative cross before Hradecky blocked a Ferguson attempt with his legs in a late, but ultimately futile, flurry.
However, Knight tested Hradecky from distance within two minutes of the restart and it took Schuller’s well-timed intervention to deny Ferguson after Scales, Brady and Szmodics had linked fluently.
Szmodics stabbed instinctively at the keeper after Scales had headed down the resulting corner with Ireland showing much greater urgency, and they got their reward with 57 minutes gone after Ogbene had been hauled back by Keskinen.
Brady curled the free-kick to the far post where Scales climbed above defender Arttu Hoskonen to head firmly back across Hradecky to level.
Finland passed up a glorious opportunity to restore their advantage within six minutes when former Rangers and Leeds midfielder Glen Kamara curled wastefully wide with the goal at his mercy, and Stahl only just failed to get on the end of Galvez’s driven cross 13 minutes from time.
Substitute Benjamin Kallman might have snatched victory for Finland when he headed wide from Lod’s 87th-minute free-kick, but Brady was not so wasteful seconds later when he controlled Festy Ebosele’s cross and blasted into the roof of the net.
