Hodgson took Switzerland to the World Cup in 1994

They lie top of their group after two games, an away win over Poland 3-1 and a 1-1 at home to Portugal.

The appointment of coach Roy Hodgson, who took Switzerland to the World Cup in 1994 and to Euro 96, has infused the team with new found optimism.

Finland are hoping the 58-year-old Englishman can conjure some more magic.

New confidence

Despite producing players of the calibre of Anti Niemi, Sami Hyypia and Jari Litmanen, Finland have never realised their full potential.

But now under the former Blackburn Rovers boss Hodgson, they are hoping all that is about to change.

Finland's veteran captain Litmanen said Hodgson's experience of world football and tactical nous will benefit the team.

"He's a coach who has a clear idea of how to get success," he said.

"He's tested new players and tried different systems over the last year and for the first time we can play the way we want to play."

"We play good as a team and we're strong together. That's the key for us. We don't have the individual qualities like the big countries."

Team mate and Liverpool stalwart Hyypia said Hodgson has introduced tactical discipline.

"[Against Poland], we were very compact when defending and when we got the ball we tried to play and go forward," he said.

Heagga Maittanen, a sports journalist for the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, said football does not enjoy the same pulling power as other sports in Finland.

"We have good players but we don't have many good players," he said. "We don't have a big population in Finland. There's only five million.

"We have very big sports like skiing, athletics and ice-hockey and those sports take very many talented girls and boys."

Hyypia said the team needs to be able to count on a strong squad if they are to realise their dreams of qualification for the Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria.