Oliver Antman is looking forward to Finland’s World Cup qualifier against Oranje on Saturday. The Go Ahead Eagles attacker, like national coach Jacob Friis, is full of confidence, although he realizes that the Netherlands has much more quality.
“I don’t know the players from the Netherlands personally,” Antman said Friday afternoon at the Finnish team’s press conference in Helsinki. “But because I play in the Netherlands, this is a slightly more special match for me. I’m looking forward to it.”
The 23-year-old Antman excelled last Eredivisie season with fifteen assists. He is one of the biggest names in the selection, with, for example, Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukás Hrádecky and Teemu Pukki (HJK Helsinki), who previously played for Celtic, Schalke 04 and Norwich City.
“The feeling around our team is good,” Antman continued. “But the Netherlands has a team with many players from big competitions. And the players who are active in the Netherlands are the best of the Eredivisie. You only have good players.”
The question is whether Antman will still be playing in the Eredivisie next season after his good season at Go Ahead. National coach Friis called him at the press conference a “hungry player” that every trainer likes to have in his group. “If I was in the scouting of a club, then Antman would be on my list,” Friis said.
‘The atmosphere will be great’
The 48-year-old Friis has been the national coach of Finland since the beginning of this calendar year, which participated once in a major tournament: the European Championship in 2021. The chance that the country will qualify for the World Cup of 2026 is small in a group including Poland and the Netherlands.
The fact that the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki is virtually sold out (almost 30,000 spectators) gives Friis the feeling that it can be a nice evening against Oranje.
“The atmosphere will be great in the beginning, but the Netherlands will have the ball a lot. We have to give everything so that the stadium continues to support us. Hopefully we can then achieve a good result.”
Finland against the Netherlands starts on Saturday at 8:45 PM in the Olympic Stadium and is led by German referee Daniel Siebert.