Finland cruise past Latvia for first points of World Cup qualifying campaign

[p]Two stoppage-time strikes in Vizela had denied [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/finland/EPXH92YE/"]Finland[/a] an important first point in Group B3, but they ensured there would be no repeat at home to [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/latvia/b5PNuOS4/"]Latvia[/a], dominating the game with 31 shots compared to the visitors' four.[/p][p]16 of those from the Helmarit were on target, and the first to find a way past the Latvian goalkeeper, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/strazdina-elza-renate/6ZSHejL5/"]Elza Strazdina[/a], arrived in the 26th minute,[b] when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/engman-adelina/UusZ0tMB/"]Adelina Engman[/a] found [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/oling-ria/YHknGkfh/"]Ria Oling[/a], who celebrated her 100th cap by breaking the deadlock.[/b][/p][p]Finland kept piling on the pressure, but the floodgates failed to open before the break, and it took until 56 minutes in when they put daylight between themselves and the side ranked outside the top 100, [b]as Oling improved her landmark day with another goal, taking her personal total to 13.[/b][/p][p][b]That goal was also set up by Engman, who then made it a hat-trick of assists less than 10 minutes later when she found [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/sevenius-oona/ClIFaJsE/"]Oona Sevenius[/a] to make it 3-0.[/b][/p][embed guid="2dd31e2f-47c9-418c-bf1a-371a8abdd3a1" url="https://x.com/HelmaritFI/status/2030335051825615334" social-type="twitter" /][p][b]One blot on the Finnish copybook arrived deep into added time when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/andersone-annija/Ugg171GI/"]Annija Andersone[/a] scored a consolation for Latvia with their only effort on goal throughout the match.[/b][/p][p]But [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/finland-EPXH92YE/latvia-b5PNuOS4/?mid=Yc0Apz8C"]the 3-1 success[/a] means Finland are off the mark as they aim to reach the World Cup for the first time, sitting second in the group on goal difference ahead of [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/slovakia/6yMSOPh6/"]Slovakia[/a], who were thrashed 4-0 by [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/portugal/2wzV2vte/"]Portugal[/a] this afternoon.[/p][p]A top-three finish in the group guarantees a play-off place for the World Cup, but only a top-two placing staves off potential relegation to League C of the UEFA Women's Nations League.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/soccer/world/world-cup-women/"]Review all the 2027 Women's World Cup results on Flashscore.[/a][/b][/p]