Euro Qualifier Preview: Northern Ireland -v- San Marino

NORTHERN IRELAND

In his second spell as manager, Michael O’Neill has got just the one win to his name with the other five matches ending in defeats. That win came against Saturday’s opposition (kick-off 2pm) when Northern Ireland began their European qualifying campaign with a 2-0 victory against San Marion in March this year.

Since then they have had four 1-0 defeats in their EURO 2025 qualifying group – home and away to Kazakhstan, away to Denmark and home to Finland. Their other loss was a 4-2 defeat in Slovenia.

The results leave O’Neill’s men fifth in Group H with just one point separating the four teams above them with Slovenia topping the group on 13 points.  It all means the Northern Ireland manager described it as “a game that we must win” when he spoke at the pre-match press conference on Friday.

That really shouldn’t be an issue playing against a team that have lost 25 of their last 27 matches, drawing the other two.

Injury has seen O’Neill have to call on some of the less experience players in his squad for a campaign that will now unlikely result in qualifying for next summer’s tournament in Germany.

“The younger players in the squad have been thrust into the international spotlight sooner than I would have liked. I thought integrating a raft of inexperienced players into the panel would have kicked in after Euro 2024.

“However, I think they have done well, and that gives me plenty of optimism going forward. We must now use the remaining games in the group to establish a winning mentality in the squad, to prepare us for FIFA World Cup qualifiers in 2025.

“The green shoots I have seen coming through will, naturally, have to be nurtured and helped to grow and burst into life. We can start that process with the remaining four fixtures in Group H, starting with the game against San Marino.”

Northern Ireland striker Josh Magennis speaking ahead of playing one of the minnows of world football said: “Regardless of if we’re playing San Marino or any other nation, winning at home is vital to us,” said the 33-year-old frontman.

“To be able to do that on Saturday afternoon is huge, especially as it’s the first part of a double header. I think if we win the first game the momentum for the second game against Slovenia should look after itself (next Tuesday in Belfast).”

SAN MARINO

San Marino are the lowest ranked international team in the world, holding that dubious honour for the last five years. You have to scroll all the way down the FIFA rankings to see them sitting there in 207^th place.

It is two decades since they last won a match – a 1-0 home win against Liechtenstein and that was only in a friendly. They have never won a competitive senior international match.

With six games played in this campaign, unsurprisingly San Marino still await their first point of the campaign and indeed their first goal. At the other end they have conceded 21 times.

San Marino head coach Fabrizio Costantini, has only a couple of full-time professional players in his squad, and typically employs a 5-3-2 formation which turns into a 6-3-1 out of possession as they sit deep and only look to commit more players forward in counter-attacking situations. This match has low-block written all over it.

Speaking to ESPN this week, San Marino captain Matteo Vitaioli said: “It's difficult, but of course we are proud, even if we are at the bottom of the FIFA ranking. We are here: we are one of the smallest countries in the world, but we play with 100 percent and it is just us, no other nationalities. Even Italy uses players from other countries, but we are just San Marino, so we are very proud of that."

Referee: Bram Van Driessche (Belgium) - He was ref for Motherwell's 5-1 win over Glentoran in 2020

MATCH STATS

The teams have played each other in five competitive matches and all five matches have ended in wins for Northern Ireland – 2-0 victory in March this year in San Marino, 4-0 at home and 3-0 away in both the 2010 and 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

San Marino have lost their last seven matches but did manage to draw away to Saint Lucia in a friendly in the match before that. The Caribbean island is ranked 166 in the FIFA world rankings. In the 2020 UEFA Nations League they earned two points from their scoreless draws away to Liechtenstein and home to Gibraltar.

PREDICTION

Northern Ireland 3 - 0 San Marino

Northern Ireland

Injured: Alistair McCann 

Suspended: None.
 

Macdara Ferris will be reporting live on Saturday's match at National Football Stadium at Windsor Park.

In Pictures: Ireland 0 - 2 Greece https://t.co/CJfOjh89Obpic.twitter.com/5PFWOLU9LU

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) October 13, 2023