Luxembourg vs San Marino Predictions

San Marino have long been the butt of the joke when it comes to international football and this has largely continued to be the case this year. Three games, three losses and 10 goals conceded sees them prop up their group at the bottom of the table. It has been tough to watch for many of their fans and the cherry was put on top of the cake on Friday when they lost the only game that they’ve had a real chance of winning recently.

San Marino are ranked 204th on the FIFA World Rankings but their opponents on Friday Moldova are only 173rd in the world, so this really was the type of game that the Sammarinese should have been looking to win. But in typical San Marino fashion, they slumped to a 2-0 defeat away from home and only had 22% of the possession in a truly woeful performance. This was their one chance to get points over a similarly terrible side and they blew it, as the other opponents in the group are of a much higher quality.

San Marino lost 5-0 to Belarus in the first game of the Nations League and followed it with a 3-0 defeat to Luxembourg in the first of two games against the central-Europeans. In this game away from home, San Marino should really be expecting another thrashing.

Much of their squad is made up of semi-professional players and the only player who seems to really be having a go at being a professional footballer is Filippo Berardi, who currently plays for Monopoli in the third tier of Italy. This San Marino team is used to being absolutely battered in games and we’re expecting another against this strong Luxembourg side.

Luxembourg aren’t the best side in the world, they currently sit 82nd in the world rankings but just to compare that, most of the team are professional footballers, as opposed to San Marino’s squad of rookies, which really just spells out the difference in quality. They are the second highest ranked team in the group but lost narrowly to Belarus on Friday by a goal to nil. Their two matches against Belarus will be their toughest tests in the group, so Luxembourg should be frustrated with this loss.

In their two other games they have thrashed Moldova and San Marino 4-0 and 3-0 respectively in games that were basically seen as ‘free three points’. Luxembourg have only lost two of their last nine games and have quite a formidable squad, headlined by the talented youngsters of Leandro Barreiro Martins who plays for Mainz and Pau’s Vincent Thill. Luxembourg will be expecting another comfortable win in this one and we mirror those views.

Luxembourg have scored seven goals in their last three games and picked up six points from a possible nine. They now find themselves facing another side much worse than them and we severely doubt that San Marino will get anything from this game. San Marino have lost each of their last ten games, conceding 46 and only scoring once. The Sammarinese have shown no sign of improvement and with Luxembourg beating them 3-0 away from home, we’re going to back a 4-0 win this time round.