With neither side qualifying for this year's World Cup, Finland and Slovakia meet at Murcia's Estadio Nueva Condomina on Tuesday, as they look ahead to the start of their Nations League campaigns in the summer.

While the Finns drew their opening game of the current camp, their friendly opponents were beaten by Norway last Friday.

Match preview

Conceding 21 shots and managing only four themselves, Slovakia were obdurate enough to prevent Norway from opening the scoring until the 77th minute of the nations' meeting in Oslo last week. However, Erling Haaland's strike was soon followed by a Martin Odegaard effort that consigned the visitors to a 2-0 defeat at Ullevaal Stadion.

It was hardly the morale boost required following the Slovaks' failure to reach Qatar 2022, as they fell short of a top-two spot in Qualifying Group H - finishing eight points behind second-placed Russia.

With just two wins from their opening nine matches, the Sokoli were held back by a number of draws - including against both Croatia and Slovenia last autumn - and with little left to play for on the final day, they thumped Malta 6-0 to at least end on a high note.

The 2010 finalists also tamely exited Euro 2020 at the group stage, so they are in search of a fresh start ahead of their return to Nations League duty in June.

Stefan Tarkovic's men will feature in League C Group 3 - the third tier of the competition - alongside relative minnows Belarus, Azerbaijan and either Moldova or Kazakhstan (depending on the result of the two-legged 'playout' between the teams this week).

Now taking on a nation ranked 11 places below them in FIFA's global pecking order - and on neutral soil - Slovakia will hope to notch an increasingly rare victory on Tuesday.

Finland may be modestly ranked, sitting 57th in the latest standings, but are on a generally upward curve following their major tournament debut at last summer's Euros.

Though they were ultimately eliminated at the group stage, the Finns went on to finish their World Cup qualifying campaign in a mostly positive manner - doing the double over Kazakhstan, before beating Bosnia in their own back yard despite being reduced to 10 men for nearly an hour.

Two defeats against France and October's crucial home loss to Ukraine ultimately meant that dreams of a first World Cup appearance were brought to an end, but now Markku Kanerva's men are looking forward to their upcoming Nations League campaign.

The Eagle-owls have been drawn alongside Bosnia, Romania and Montenegro in League B Group 3, so can have realistic ambitions of promotion to Europe's top tier if they continue their recent improvement.

Despite a timid showing in the final third on Saturday, Finland held Nordic neighbours Iceland to a 1-1 friendly draw in their first match of the year - with the ever-reliable Teemu Pukki scoring early on - and will now be keen to finish their Spanish sojourn with a win.

Team News

Seeking a fresh start for 2022, Finland coach Markku Kanerva omitted several players from the squad which lost to France last November, while former captain Tim Sparv and defensive duo Joona Toivio and Paulus Arajuuri have all retired from international football.

Therefore, four potential debutants were called up for the trip to Spain, and of those, only Lucas Lingman has yet to see some action; suggesting the Helsingborg midfielder may feature at some stage on Tuesday.

Fellow newcomers Miro Tenho and 17-year-old Miska Ylitolva both started in defence at the weekend, but the more familiar figures of Leo Vaisanen and Jere Uronen could be preferred this time out.

Teemu Pukki - his nation's all-time top scorer with 34 goals from 101 caps - will lead the line, with Bayer Leverkusen's Lukas Hradecky providing an experienced last line of defence.

Due to a dearth of alternatives, Slovakia named an experienced squad for this month's camp, though captain and all-time top scorer Marek Hamsik is a notable absentee due to injury. Groningen winger Tomas Suslov is a rare exception, with 10 caps already at the age of 19, and the teenager should start once again.

Meanwhile, up front, Robert Bozenik will vie for the centre-forward role with Ladislav Almasi, though Martin Regali made his international debut on Friday at the age of 28 and is also a contender.

Slovakia possible starting lineup:
Dubravka; Koscelnik, Skriniar, Satka, Holubek; Lobotka, Hrosovsky; Suslov, Duda, Haraslin; Bozenik

Finland possible starting lineup:
Hradecky; L. Vaisanen, S. Vaisanen, O'Shaughnessy; Ylitolva, Kamara, Lod, Schuller, Uronen; Pohjanpalo, Pukki

We say: Slovakia 2-2 Finland

Though they drew a blank last time out, Slovakia managed to net 10 times in their previous three games at the end of 2021, so are capable of causing a well-drilled Finland team some trouble.

This friendly encounter in the Spanish sunshine will give the nations' respective coaches a chance to blood some younger players, so it could be an open affair which ends in a score draw.

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