HJK Helsinki VS IFK Mariehamn

HJK welcome visitors from Åland for this Finnish Liiga Cup group stage round 1 clash in Talin Halli very late Friday evening Beijing time. Both teams play in the Veikkausliiga, the highest level of Finnish football. Technically this is a competitive match but in reality all the Veikkausliiga teams see these games to a large extent as preseason friendlies/ "test matches". At least HJK are expected to make a maximum number of substitutes, as publicly said by the new HJK head coach, Joonas Rantanen. He joined HJK from Ilves. Last season HJK faced MIFK  at the same "arena", as heavy favourites, winning only 1-0. Since last season there have been quite a lot of changes in both squads. HJK will be without Teemu Pukki, Alex Ring, Alfie Cicale, Brooklyn Lyons-Foster, Jere Kallinen, David Ezeh, Daniel O’Shaughnessy and  Eemil Toivonen - due to injuries or illness. Benji Michel is out because of personal reasons. Teemu Pukki and Alex Ring were the best two players in HJK last season, scoring a lot of goals. Issam El Maach, a test player from Twente, is expected to start in goal. I do not know this player but his statistics are not impressive at all. Even with the expected line-ups HJK are the favourites but the current odds of around 1.50 on the home win are too low. We will, of course, take the MIFK +1.5 goals handicap option.

Rather amazingly HJK have not won any of their last 10 games! Their last season was a massive disappointment, despite winning the Finnish Cup. They ended up in 5th place. In most of these 10 games they were heavily overrated by the bookies and did even come close to winning.  In the UEFA Conference League they were disappointing, losing 0-4 in the Faroe Islands and then being ousted by Arda, a mediocre Bulgarian team. They will almost certainly improve but there are a lot of uncertainties. They are still expected to bring in 4-5 key players before the season starts, which reflects the weaknesses shown last season. MIGJ played a good  2025 season, by their standards. They have lost some important players but have also brought in a few interesting guys. Their situation is much better than in January last season. They finished the season with 3 wins and 2 draws.

GOOD LUCK!

赫尔辛基hkk VS玛丽汉姆IFK

北京时间周五晚，香港jk欢迎来自Åland的观众前来观看在塔林哈里举行的芬兰联赛杯小组赛第一轮比赛。这两支球队都参加了芬兰足球最高水平的联赛。从技术上讲，这是一场激烈的比赛，但实际上，所有的球队都把这些比赛很大程度上看作是季前赛或“测试赛”。正如新任主帅拉纳塔宁（Joonas Rantanen）公开表示的那样，至少jk有望获得最多的替补名额。他从伊尔维斯加入hkk。上个赛季，hkk在同一个“竞技场”面对mikk，作为大热门，只赢了1-0。自从上个赛季以来，两支球队都有了很大的变化。由于伤病，hkk将失去普基、林、西卡莱、莱昂斯-福斯特、卡里宁、埃泽赫、奥肖内西和托伊沃宁。本吉·米歇尔因为个人原因离开了。普基和林是上个赛季香港最好的两名球员，他们打进了很多球。来自特温特的试训球员伊萨姆·埃尔马赫有望首发。我不认识这个球员，但他的数据一点也不令人印象深刻。即使有预期的阵容，HJK是最受欢迎的，但目前主场获胜的1.50左右的赔率太低了。当然，我们将采用MIFK +1.5进球障碍选项。

令人惊讶的是，hkk在过去的10场比赛中没有赢过一场！尽管他们赢得了芬兰杯，但上个赛季他们的表现非常令人失望。他们最终获得了第五名。在这10场比赛中，他们大多被博彩公司高估了，甚至差一点就赢了。在欧洲联盟联赛中，他们的表现令人失望，先是在法罗群岛0-4落败，然后又被一支平庸的保加利亚球队阿尔达淘汰出局。他们几乎肯定会改善，但有很多不确定因素。他们仍然希望在赛季开始前引进4-5名主力球员，这反映了上赛季表现出的弱点。按照他们的标准，MIGJ在2025赛季表现不错。他们失去了一些重要的球员，但也引进了一些有趣的球员。他们的情况比上赛季一月份好多了。他们以3胜2平的成绩结束了这个赛季。

好运！