Two teams in the lower rungs of European football and FIFA rankings face each other at the Stade Josy Barthel on Monday night. Luxembourg currently ranked 82nd in the latest FIFA rankings will be facing San Marino, ranked 204th in the world. The UEFA Nations League has afforded minnows in European football an opportunity to play against stronger footballing nations in competitive games and this is another chance for a country like San Marino to test their skills against better teams.
Luxembourg are only a country of 600,000 people and only about half of this figure have Luxembourgish origins, which has required that Coach Luc Holtz try to wring out every last drop of talent from a team assembled from the available resources. Luxembourg see themselves as an emerging football nation and their 0-0 draw away to France in a World Cup qualifying match in September of 2017– a match they could have won at the death, has given them more belief that they are on the right path. Since June of 2017, they have beaten some more established football playing nations like Albania, Belarus, Hungary, Georgia and Malta while holding Bulgaria and Senegal to draws.
San Marino’s history in football is quite scanty and they do hold or have held some rare footballing records. They have conceded ten goals four times and their only ever victory is a 1-0 win over Liechtenstein. They went over 200 games without scoring a single goal between October 2008 and August 2012. Matteo Vitaioli scored against Lithuania in a qualifying match for Euro 2016 to record their first away goal in 14 years. For La Serenissima, a country of 33,000 people, the list is somewhat endless.
Since the turn of the year, Luxembourg have recorded 3 wins, 1 draw and a loss. The 3 wins have come in their most recent games with two of them 3-0 and 4-0 victories over San Marino and Moldova. Those victories have catapulted them to second place in group D2 of the UEFA Nations League, one point behind group leaders Belarus. San Marino are rock bottom of the group with zero points and a -10 goal difference, having lost their opening two group games 0-3 and 0-5 to Luxembourg and Belarus respectively.
San Marino deployed a 4-3-3 in their last match against Moldova, Franco Varrella started Benedettini in goal and Giardi upfront flanked by Vitaioli and Hirsch. Even though they lost the game 0-2, Varrella and his guards must have seen the loss as an improvement on their recent form. You will have to go back to September of 2016 for a San Marino loss lower than a 2 goal margin. Battistini serves a suspension in this game for La Serenissima.
Daniel Sinani remains the key man for Luxembourg. He scored the 3rd goal in the 3-0 win over San Marino in September. He has 2 goals so far in this competition. The Red Lions have 3 wins in their last five and San Marino are a team chasing their first win in four years. This should be an absolute straightforward victory for Luxembourg.
Verdict
Well its Luxembourg to win but by how much? I am going to go out on a limb and say 4-0 will be the scoreline. If you look at the record of San Marino games they seem to have a permanent red L next to their name. You have to admire them for perseverance if nothing else.
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