Ilmari Niskanen: Exeter City's Finland midfielder dreaming of making Euro 2024

"It's started to be more and more a big deal in Finland," Exeter City midfielder Ilmari Niskanen says of the League One club.

"On social media I get a lot messages from the Finnish people who have started to follow Exeter City," says Niskanen, who has returned to action after a dislocated shoulder in Denmark while on international duty curtailed the start of his career at his new club.

And while his focus over the short term is trying to improve Exeter's poor form, which has seen them win just one league game since Niskanen was injured in early September, there is a Euro 2024-sized ambition on the horizon.

Having trekked to Kazakhstan and his homeland from Exeter in September, Niskanen has the shortest journey he could wish for - just a couple of hours up the M5 and M4 to Cardiff when Finland face Wales in a Euro 2024 qualifying play-off game on 21 March.

Victory over Wales, and a win over either Poland or Estonia five days later would send Finland to their second successive European Championships and face France, Netherlands and Austria.

"It would be a huge dream come true to represent Finland at the Euros," the ever-smiling Niskanen tells BBC Sport.

"It would be massive for the whole nation as well and huge games in March and hopefully we can go through.

"I narrowly missed out on the squad for the last Euros, so personally it would be a really big thing for me to be part of the squad in the Euros.

"But it's still a long way to go and I need to play really well in those games in March, especially Wales away, they're a really good team so it's never going to be easy, but I know we can do it.

"Hopefully a lot of Exeter City fans will be cheering for me and Vil as well."

'That was the first injury for nine years'

A summer signing from Dundee United, Niskanen played just three times for Exeter before being injured as he won his 16th cap for Finland in Copenhagen.

It was a rare setback for the right-sided player who moved to the UK from German side Ingolstadt in the summer of 2021 having started out at Kuopion Palloseura more than 250 miles north of the capital Helsinki.

"That was the first injury for nine years, so it was a really tough one to take," he said.

"I'd started well, the team was doing really well, I was a big part of the national team and then I got the injury.

"So of course, especially the first few days was really difficult to cope with, but then I started doing the rehab as well as possible and everything now is good again.

"All the frustration is behind me now and I'm just so happy to be back playing, injuries are part of the sport so there's no point dwelling on it."

'We just need to get that first win now'

So what of Exeter - a side who were top of the league on the day Niskanen got injured but are now one place outside of the relegation spots after a dramatic dip in form.

City have won just one the 12 League One matches since Niskanen's initial injury and his first start since returning to fitness was a humbling 7-0 loss away at Bolton Wanderers.

"We need to improve what we do with the ball, especially in the final third, we need to be able to create more and take the chances as well," he said ahead of the visit of Port Vale after an extended break due to Exeter's early FA Cup exit.

"We've been working on those things on the training ground and really want to show them to everybody on Saturday.

"We just need to get that first win now and then I'm fully confident we can go on a good run again.

"It has been very frustrating for everyone because we know that we can play well, but we just haven't been able to get the results for so long now.

"So it's really important to break the run and get the win now finally, because we showed at the beginning of the season that we can play well, we can get the results and we can be a really good team.

"Of course it's easier said than done, so when we cross that white line on Saturday we need to show it by our actions and just get the three points, no matter how."