Chelsea’s midfield enforcer come playmaker, Jorginho will line-up against Norwich City’s Teemu Pukki tonight, when Italy and Finland play each other in a top of the table clash in Group J of qualifying for Euro 2020.
Italy currently top the group ahead of Finland on 15 points from 5 games with the Finns just behind them on 12 points but the two men recently met when their respective teams faced off in the Premier League a couple of weeks ago. The former Napoli midfielder was, it seems, very impressed by our Teemu.
“We’ll go out there to win, regardless of who plays and which characteristics they bring to the table. The important thing is the coach has plenty of options to choose from,” said Jorginho in a press conference and reported by the Daily Mirror.
”He (Pukki) is their most important player, but we should keep a close eye on all of them. Finland are not a surprise, as the quality of their players is evident and they work as a team.”
The City striker has hit the ground running, having carried on the form he showed last season when he scored 29 goals in the Championship, into the Premier League.
He was largely overlooked by those in the world of punditry before the season started with Mark Lawrenson dismissing him as “he”ll be lucky to get ten goals.”
Well Lawro, he scored five goals in his first four games, notching at Liverpool before following that up with a glorious hat-trick against Newcastle and then scoring another cleverly worked goal against Jorginho’s Chelsea.
If Norwich are to stay up this season then Pukki’s goals look as though they’re going to be crucial to the team effort and he clearly impressed the Chelsea star.
“Pukki has a bit of everything, which makes him a complete striker. He times his runs well, is very intelligent in his positioning, runs hard, presses opponents and never stops moving.
“He protects the ball, can provide assists, he really is dangerous.”
📈 Teemu Pukki fr. 2018/19 (Norwich City + Finland)
🏟: 61 Games
👍: 58 Starts
⚽: 42 Goals
🅰: 11 Assists
🥅: 1 Pen
⚡: 8 Doubles
🔥: 1 Hat-trick
💥: 11 Matchwinners
➡: 29 Right foot
⬅: 10 Left foot
👤: 1 Header (+2 other)
▶: 41 fr. open play#ncfc @NorwichCityFC @Huuhkajat pic.twitter.com/A97VtP1Yv5— playmakerstats (@playmaker_EN) September 6, 2019
Those are some pretty impressive stats but I think I’ll leave the final words to Jorginho.
“It’s no coincidence that he is one of the current Premier League top scorers.”
OTBC