San Marino vs Liechtenstein prediction: EUROPE: UEFA Nations League – League D betting tips on match 2024-09-04 18:45.
[p]San Marino sit bottom of the FIFA world rankings in 210th place, and of the 176 competitive internationals across their history, 171 have ended in defeat (D5). La Serenissima will hope that the return of the UEFA Nations League, where they get to pit their wits against countries of a similar stature, at least gives them the chance to end their 20-year wait for a victory.[/p]
[p]Their previous history in the competition inspires little confidence of that however, given Roberto Cevoli’s side finished bottom of their group in 2022/23 after losing each of their four games without so much as scoring a goal. But if the class of 2024 are looking for inspiration, perhaps it can be drawn from the fact San Marino’s only previous international victory came against Liechtenstein, opponents for this match, all the way back in 2004 in a friendly![/p]
[p]Since that 1-0 defeat, the Blue-Reds of Liechtenstein have upped their game in this fixture, winning three of the last four H2Hs (D1) and keeping a clean sheet in each match. One of those was a 2-0 success in a Nations League meeting four years ago, but since then Konrad Fünfstück’s side have lost 34 of their 40 internationals (W1, D5), with their only success during that period coming against Luxembourg in October 2020.[/p]
[p]Liechtenstein lost each of their six Nations League outings in 2022/23, contributing to them dropping to 199th in the FIFA rankings themselves, but results have improved in recent months to inspire confidence ahead of this outing. Two of their last three games have ended all square (L1), 1-1 against Latvia and 0-0 with Romania, with the “proud” manager saying that his team deserve “absolute respect” for how they performed in the latter of those two fixtures in particular.[/p]
[p]Key battle: San Marino goalkeeper Edoardo Colombo has conceded at least three goals in three of his four international appearances (D1, L3). That will be music to the ears of Liechtenstein’s Dennis Salanović, who has scored two of his previous four international goals in the Nations League, with both strikes serving as the first of the game. [/p]
[p]Hot streak: Only three of Liechtenstein’s last 27 games have seen both teams score.[/p]
[p][i]Written by Matt Jones[/i][/p]