Northern Ireland v Finland: Counting Irish cards at Windsor Park

Paul Higham
26 March 2023
2 min read

Michael O'Neill is back in charge of Northern Ireland

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Paul Higham doesn't expect too many goals at Windsor Park on Sunday but fancies Northern Ireland to pick up more cards than Finland as part of his 4/1 Bet Builder.

The Irish had just one total goal in four home World Cup qualifiers
12 of Finland's last 14 games has had under 2.5 goals
Back 4/1 Bet Builder on goals and cards

Michael O'Neill eased back into life as Northern Ireland manager with a 2-0 win in San Marino, and now he's ready for a second home debut back in Belfast against Finland.

The former Stoke boss led the Irish to qualification for Euro 2016, and a packed out Windsor Park will hope he can repeat that trick.

And he'll have good memories of facing Finland as they beat them here during qualifying for Euro 2016 as part of a four-game unbeaten run against Sunday's visitors.

The Finns did qualify for Euro 2020 but got this campaign off to a bad start with a 3-1 loss in Denmark - although it was 1-1 until the hosts scored twice in the last eight minutes.

And Finland have lost all three competitive outings at Windsor Park giving the hosts hope of winning their opening two Euro qualifiers for a third straight campaign.

Goals not likely in Belfast

Northern Ireland conceded in all three Nations League home games, and O'Neill is looking to get them back to basics and the same defensive solidity that saw them get four clean sheets out of four home World Cup qualifiers.

In fact, the home fans only witnessed one goal in World Cup qualifying, with three 0-0s punctuated with a solitary 1-0 victory.

Back the HT draw & under 2.5 goals in N. Ireland v Finland & Irish to have more cards

4/1

So there's no surprise in the 8/15 quote for under 2.5 goals - which has been the case in 12 of Finalnd's last 14 games.

I'm going to play the half-time draw here too with O'Neill outwardly stating his safety-first approach and with Finland conceding a first-half goal in Denmark they'll be looking to be much tougher to break down here.

And with emotions running high, I'm banking on the home team just getting a bit too revved up to go out and perform for O'Neill.

Back the Irish to get more cards at 10/11 to complete Sunday's Bet Builder.

Column P/L for 2022/23

Staked: 250pts
Returned: 289.09pts
P/L: +39.09pts

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