It was a rare opportunity for back-to-back competitive wins for Finland, who have put themselves under extra pressure to get a result at home to Albania on 3rd October, with the Finns' main challengers for first place in Group C1 of the UEFA Nations League already two points clear.
Against a Belarus side ranked 21 places lower than themselves, Finland produced just two shots on target despite 61% possession, and twice had their blushes spared by offside flags disallowing Belarusian goals.
Head coach Jacob Friis called for his side to show their quality in the build-up to the match, but quality in the final third was severely lacking: "Our play was a little too stiff and there wasn't enough flow. We ended up in positions where we couldn't progress the way we wanted to," he told the post-match press conference.
Friis stated that he believed the team could have done better, but as for where the blame lay, the Danish manager was only pointing inwardly: "I choose the team, so it's also my fault that we maybe ended up in situations where we would have liked some other players to be on the ball at certain times."
"Don't blame the players, blame me," he stated directly.
The one positive for Huuhkajat was a second clean sheet in as many matches, though that will count for nothing if the attacking performance doesn't match the defensive effort against Albania.