EURO 2004/Qualifying round-up: Italy must pour into attack against a solid Finland defence in Helsinki tonight to stay in the running for automatic qualification for next year's European Championships.
Group Nine has a strange look, with Italy trailing Wales by five points with four games each left to play, so Giovanni Trapattoni's team badly need a victory to close the gap before the summer break.
Lazio's Bernardo Corradi will be the lone striker in the absence of Inter's Christian Vieri, but he should get plenty of options from the midfield trio of Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti, and Stefano Fiore, who replaces the injured Mauro Camoranesi on the right.
"The doubts that I had have been resolved," said Trapattoni. "I don't want to disrupt the balance that we have found over the last week. I have no real worries about playing Gianluca Zambrotta as a left back.
"Stefano Fiore can drift into the centre so long as he remembers to cover when necessary."
The backbone of the Finnish team is Liverpool captain Sami Hyypia, who scored the first goal in the 3-0 drubbing of Serbia and Montenegro on Saturday.
Mikael Forssell, the Chelsea striker who spent last season on loan to Borussia Monchengladbach, leads the attack in a team which trails Italy by a point.
Germany are suddenly looking vulnerable in Group Five after being held to a surprise 1-1 draw by Scotland on Saturday, bringing the Scots level on eight points with Rudi Voller's World Cup finalists.
Key midfield playmaker Michael Ballack is worried, although his side should have no problem in bringing back three points from the Faroe Islands.
"At the moment we're just not dominating opponents away from home, so we have a lot of work to do," Ballack said.
"Some players are showing signs of a lack of class. At the end of the day, Scotland were one of the weakest teams we've played and that speaks volumes."
With Zlatan Ibrahimovic injured, Sweden are set to team Marcus Allback and Mattias Jonson in attack after the duo shared five goals between them in the 6-0 away thrashing of San Marino on Saturday for tonight's Group Four game against Poland.
Sweden coach Lars Lagerback called his team's performance "perfect" and few line-up changes should be expected.
An exception could be the young midfielder Kim Kallstrom, who failed to impress and is likely to make way for Anders Svensson.
Denmark, who beat Norway 1-0 on Saturday to go top of Group Two, should consolidate their position with another win over Luxembourg tonight.
Denmark coach Morten Olsen said there were likely to be only minor changes to his team who should take three points against opponents coached by Dane Allan Simonsen - a former international team-mate of Olsen's.
A Turkish victory in today's Group Seven qualifier against Macedonia will keep the pressure on England in the race for automatic qualification.
Turkey are top of the group with 12 points from five games, two points ahead of England, and their match on October 11th in Turkey will probably decide who will win the group.
"We have not secured second in the group," Turkey coach Sunel Gunes said yesterday. "If we take this match then we'll seal the second place and the final will be with England."
"I'm not interested in whether England drop points in the run-up to the match with us."
Gunes will be without the suspended Yildiray Basturk and Okan Buruk in midfield.
Turkey's national goalkeeper Rustu Recber is poised to leave Fenerbahce after nine years with the Turkish outfit for Spanish giants Barcelona.
