Preview: New Zealand vs Finland - prediction, team news, lineups

New Zealand will play host to Finland in an international friendly - included in the 2026 FIFA Series - at Eden Park on Friday.

While the All Whites are continuing their preparations for the 2026 World Cup, their European opponents are playing a second of several friendlies ahead of the 2026 UEFA Nations League starting in September.

Match preview

This particular group of the FIFA Series features New Zealand, Finland, Chile and Cape Verde all playing two matches apiece at the 50,000-capacity Eden Park on March 27 and March 30.

Although a winner will be declared at the end of two days of competition, this is essentially a friendly tournament in the run up to the World Cup.

New Zealand have been playing less-competitive fixtures ever since they earned their spot at the World Cup almost 12 months to the day of Friday's game.

Six defeats have been posted in eight matches, the only times where they have avoided defeat coming in a 1-0 win over Ivory Coast and 1-1 draw with Norway.

To the credit of Darren Bazeley's team, they have only conceded more than twice in a 3-1 defeat to fierce rivals Australia, but they did lose 2-1 and 2-0 to Colombia and Ecuador respectively in their most recent encounters in November.

Bazeley is hoping that their schedule ahead of the World Cup - which includes a game versus England in June - will prepare them for group matches against Egypt and Belgium. As it stands, their other fixture with Iran is considerably in doubt.

Meanwhile, Finland are going through their preparation phase for the start of the 2026 UEFA Nations League, having been placed in a group with Albania, Belarus and San Marino.

Despite posting a notable 2-1 triumph over Poland in June, the Scandinavian nation had to settle for third place behind Netherlands and Poland in their World Cup qualifying group.

Since that success over Poland, Jacob Friis' side have lost four of their six games, only beating Lithuania and Andorra respectively.

Only two away victories - in San Marino and Malta - have been recorded since November 2023.

New Zealand form (all competitions):

L L L D L L

Finland form (all competitions):

L L W L L W

Team News

With Sarpreet Singh absent from the New Zealand squad through injury, there will be at least one change from the defeat to Ecuador.

Both Andre de Jong and Kosta Barbarouses are options. Despite recently being rested by Port Vale due to fatigue, Ben Waine should feature as the number 10 or main striker.

Liberato Cacace, Matthew Garbett and all-time top goalscorer Chris Wood are major misses for the All Whites.

Finland will make at least four alterations from the team that started the 4-0 victory over Andorra.

Miro Tenho, Matti Peltola, Oiva Jukkola and Joel Pohjanpolo could all be handed opportunities.

Robert Ivanov, Jere Uronen, Robin Lod and Glen Kamara are all absent from the squad. Legendary forward Teemu Pukki retired from international football in November.

New Zealand possible starting lineup:

Crocombe; Tuiloma, Surman, Bindon, De Vries; Rufer, Stamenic; Just, De Jong, Old; Waine

Finland possible starting lineup:

Hradecky; Keskinen, Koski, Tenho, Lahteenmaki; Markhiev, Peltola, Walta; Jukkola, Pohjanpolo, Antman

We say: New Zealand 1-1 Finland

Without Wood leading their attack, New Zealand are a significantly-weaker outfit, and that may encourage Finland that they can earn victory in the Southern Hemisphere. However, home advantage may still be enough for the All Whites to earn a share of the spoils.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.