Kosovo celebrate historic first point in Finland

Finland's poor international form continued on Monday evening as they failed to spoil Kosovo's competitive debut with a 1-1 draw at Veritas Stadion in Turku.

Paulus Arajuuri opened the scoring after the quarter hour mark for the hosts as Huuhkajat (the Owls) took their narrow lead into the interval. The plucky Kosovars fought back in the second period to claim a historic point courtesy of Valon Berisha's spot kick.

The dropped points provided an underwhelming start to Finland's World Cup qualifying campaign in a challenging Group I which features more seasoned opponents in Croatia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Iceland.

Kosovo on the other hand will celebrate the tremendous result having only been accepted as FIFA and UEFA's newest member in May 2016. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and had been campaigning to join for several years.

Finland are yet to register a win under Hans Backe since the Swede took the reigns from caretaker manager Markku Kanerva in January, with Kanerva reverting back to the assistant manager position he held under Mixu Paatelainen since 2011 .

Poor form aside Finland were favourites going into the match and had every right to be hopeful of a positive result with a front line led by Teemu Pukki and Joel Pohjanpalo.

Pukki is Europe's in-form striker at the moment having netted 14 goals in 11 appearances for Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF. Pohjanpalo's season is also off to a bright start; the 21 year old recently found the back of the net one minute into his Bundesliga debut for Bayer Leverkusen.

The visitors experienced a nervy lead-up to their first ever World Cup qualifier as manager Albert Bunjaki was left waiting at his Turku hotel for a phone call confirming the late approval of eligibility for no less than six players. The green light finally came from FIFA only a few hours before kick off, allowing Bunjaki to proceed with his intended starting line-up.

Nine approvals had been issued by FIFA's player's status committee earlier on Monday morning as the fifteen players successfully switched allegiances to represent Kosovo in time for kick-off. Seven had previously represented Albania with the remaining having featured for Switzerland, Germany, Norway, and Sweden.

While FIFA does not usually allow the changing of national teams it allowed exceptions for Kosovo due to their recently approved formation. The questionably belated nature of the approvals certainly did not assist in their preparation for the fixture.

Despite their underdog status and unsettling administrative delays it was Kosovo who rose to the occasion as they edged the hosts on both possession and chances created throughout the match.

An early Kosovar counterattack provided the first flash of things to come as Leart Paqarada rattled the crossbar with a dipping volley from the edge of the box.

Roman Eremenko should have given Huuhkajat the lead soon after when Amir Rrahmani's defensive blunder placed him one-on-one with Samir Ujkani. The keeper spread his frame to deny the CSKA Moscow midfielder with a block at the worthy expense of a corner.

Eremenko made immediate amends for his casual finish by delivering an inch-perfect cross onto the head of Thomas Lam from the ensuing short corner. Lam glanced the ball on for Arajuuri and the Lech Poznan defender took full advantage to control the ball and fire Finland into the lead.

Arajuuri will join Pukki at Brøndby when his contract expires this coming December. His future teammate soon got in on the opportunities only to see his first and second efforts drift and deflect wide in what was a tough night at the office for the prolific striker.

Kosovo grew in confidence in the second half and looked increasingly threatening as their direct style began to unsettle the Finnish backline.

They were rewarded for their efforts on the hour mark when Milot Rashica stole the ball from Robin Lod in the middle of the park. Jukka Raitala's failure to react and track back allowed Bernard Berisha to race into space; the unmarked midfielder duly received the ball before he was felled in the box by Lam's clumsy challenge.

Valon Berisha made no mistake from the spot as he fired high and to Lukas Hradecky's right to net Kosovo's first ever competitive goal and draw wild celebrations from the travelling fans.

The pride was evident on the Valon Berisha's face; the Red Bull Salzburg midfielder had only successfully switched allegiance from Norway to Kosovo a few hours earlier and he was already in dreamland with a debut goal that will forever be etched in Kosovo's football history.

The pressure didn't let up there as Hradecky was soon drawn into a brilliant diving save to deny Fanol Perdedaj from long range with his fingertips.

While Finland rallied in search of the lead Kosovo professionally defended deep with numbers and continued to threaten on the break until the final whistle.

Full time brought jeers from the discontented home fans while Kosovo will savour their bright start to competitive football long into the night.

1-1 draws were the feature of the night in Group I as Turkey came from behind to draw in Croatia while Ukraine did the same at home against Iceland to leave the entire group finely poised.