Mäkinen back in the Finland fold

Comeback
Mäkinen began her international career aged 15 in 1991 but it was at the 2005 UEFA European Women's Championship that she – and Finland – at last made their major tournament bow, reaching the semi-finals at the expense of Denmark and hosts England. After Denmark pipped Finland to the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, Mäkinen decided to bow out of the international game for personal reasons, but the AIK Fotboll midfielder reversed that decision in May and won her 109th cap in a 1-1 friendly draw at home to Iceland. Now she is in the squad to play in Wales in Port Talbot on Wednesday and Carmarthen on Friday, as Finland await the EURO finals draw on Tuesday week in Helsinki.

Time to return
"The decision to not continue after 2006 was because my mum was sick and it was really tough the following year," Mäkinen told uefa.com. "She died 18 months ago and I didn't have the strength to keep playing at the top level with everything going on at home. When the time was right and I started feeling I could be part of the team and at my best; that was the time to see if I could still help the team."

Preparations
With Finland qualifying automatically as hosts, 2008 has been a relatively quiet year for the squad. "We haven't really had much going on," Mäkinen said. "We played Iceland, a bit of a struggle and then we played Scotland [winning 3-0 and drawing 1-1 in August] but the players from AIK couldn't come as we had games. So we haven't had anything with the national team since May. But things are starting to pick up now, we have a lot of camps coming up. I think we have a solid squad, some goalscorers and some speed on the flanks. So if we can remain tight in the centre and good in defence we can be a pretty good side."

Expectations
Finland are among 12 teams competing in the finals from 23 August to 10 September next year, and in the draw will avoid holders Germany and the other top seeds Sweden. Their performance in 2005 and home advantage means that Mäkinen admits that there is pressure to perform come the summer. "Because of 2005 people will not be happy if we are not successful," she said. "But you have to look at that [2005] tournament as a whole. We played against England, Sweden, Denmark and Germany and only won one game [beating Denmark 2-1]. You have to look at the whole picture. We hope to prepare well, and obviously we want to succeed at home."

To read an interview with Mäkinen looking back at her international career click here.