San Marino's World Cup Odyssey

San Marino’s World Cup Journey Begins with Montenegro

European World Cup Qualifying gets under way this month and for us that means a swift return to action for San Marino after their encouraging yet ultimately disappointing friendly loss to Malta in August.  First up for the Sammarinese is a home tie against Montenegro on 11^th September in Serravalle which represents quite a tough opening to what is, naturally, a very tough group.

San Marino’s full fixture list for the qualifiers is as follows:

11^th September 2012       Montenegro (H)

12^th October 2012             England (A)

16^th October 2012             Moldova (H)

14^th November 2012       Montenegro (A)

22^nd March 2013                England (H)

26^th March 2013                Poland (A)

6^th September 2013         Ukraine (A)

10^th September 2013      Poland (H)

11^th October 2013             Moldova (A)

15^th October 2013             Ukraine (H)

Montenegro may be a small and relatively new country but have made a very impressive start to life as an independent football nation, reaching the play-offs for Euro 2012 having finished runner-up to England in that group.  They lost 3-0 on aggregate to the Czech Republic in that play-off but showed they a very much contenders for qualification.

So it’s a tough opener for San Marino, and anything other than a defeat would be truly astonishing.  Indeed in this group, only the games against Moldova are likely to provde anything other than a tonking.  So let’s at least hope that San Marino get off to a reasonable start, by which I mean the scoreline isn’t too lop-sided.  A goal would be utterly magnificent.