Five minutes were on the clock when Joel Pohjanpalo scored the first, and from there San Marino were only ever playing for the size of the defeat. Finland won 7-0 on Saturday night and it could reasonably have been worse. Pohjanpalo finished with three of them, Leo Walta took two inside five second-half minutes, and the home side finished the night a man short.
Three up before half-time
Pohjanpalo opened in the fifth minute. Anton Svanback made it two on 14, Benjamin Kallman a third on 33, and by the interval Finland were three clear and playing at a canter. There was no real contest in it. San Marino held out for the opening exchanges and then the game arrived all at once.
The Palermo striker has been doing this for Finland for a decade now, and there is a version of the argument that says goals against San Marino should be discounted. Possibly. He still had to be in the right place three times, and he still converted a penalty in the closing stages with the result long settled, which is the sort of detail that separates strikers who finish seasons well from strikers who do not.
Walta turns it into a rout
Whatever Finland were told at half-time, the response was immediate. Walta scored on 50 and again on 55, and in between those two goals Alessandro Golinucci was sent off for San Marino on 51 minutes. Ten men, five goals down, forty minutes still to play. From that point the scoreline was a question of appetite.
Pohjanpalo got his second on 79 and completed the hat-trick from the spot on 88.
What it is actually worth
San Marino remain the side every group gets to fatten its goal difference against, and nights like this tell you very little about how Finland will fare when the opposition can pass forward. What the seven goals do is bank a margin that can decide a group on the final matchday, and that is not nothing in a Nations League section where the teams above San Marino will all take their turn.
For the Finns there is a simpler reading. They created, they finished, and the striker they will need against better defences arrived in the box three times. Take it and move on.
Match facts: San Marino 0-7 Finland, Saturday 26 September 2026, Uefa Nations League. Half-time 0-3. Finland scorers: Joel Pohjanpalo 5, Anton Svanback 14, Benjamin Kallman 33, Leo Walta 50 and 55, Pohjanpalo 79 and 88 (penalty). Sent off: Alessandro Golinucci (San Marino) 51 minutes.
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