Football: Soccer-Finns fall to Estonia despite Pukki return

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(Reuters) – The return of Teemu Pukki from injury took the sting out of Finland’s 1-0 loss at home to Estonia in their final pre-Euro 2020 friendly in Helsinki on Friday, with the striker looking fresh in a half-hour substitute appearance.

The 31-year-old, who netted 10 goals in qualifying, damaged ankle ligaments while playing for his club Norwich City a month ago, and Finnish fans have been hoping that he will be fit in time for the Euros.

Rauno Sappinen put Estonia ahead from the penalty spot in the 59th minute before Pukki came on for Joel Pohjanpalo, and though he injected plenty of energy into the Finnish forward line, the visitors held on to win.

Playing in the finals of a major tournament for the first time, the Finns travel to Copenhagen to play Denmark in their Group B opener on June 12, before taking on Russia and Belgium in St. Petersburg.

(Reporting by Philip O’Connor, editing by Pritha Sarkar)



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