San Marino – Denmark : Preview & Prediction
While no team’s chances of victory can be completely discounted, San Marino’s pale historical record of one win and eight draws in over 200 official matches marks them coming into almost any encounter as huge underdogs. That lone win came in a friendly against Liechtenstein in 2004, but a repeat success seems highly unlikely after what has been a typically ineffective Euro Qualifying cycle so far (P7 – GF0, GC24).
San Marino will have to face that if they are to get a positive result from this clash, something illustrated by the fact that their entire population could fit in Denmark’s national home with room to spare. Any fanciful hopes of qualification are already dead for the microstate, but they will at least be looking not to lose in a Euro qualifying clash for the first time since November 2014, which was a 0-0 draw with Estonia, losing all 23 games since then.
The road to Germany looks much easier for the Danish side after their 3-1 win over Kazakhstan last weekend opened up a four-point gap to third place with just three games to play. Assuming this is as close to a guaranteed win as there is in world soccer, basically any positive result in their last two games should be enough for the 1992 European champions to qualify, although that could happen even tonight if things go their way.
Denmark shot up the table by winning four of their last five games (E1), and three of the wins in that span saw them keep a clean sheet. The Euro 2020 semifinalists are going through a not entirely positive run playing away from home in Euro qualifiers (G2, E5, P3), which makes the trip to FIFA’s lowest-ranked team in international soccer timely, especially since they won 4-0 in the previous meeting between them.
Players to watch: San Marino’s hapless goalkeeper Elia Benedettini has conceded 24 consecutive goals since the last time he saw his own side score one for him. A likely candidate to worsen that record is Christian Eriksen, who assisted in the win over Kazakhstan last time out and contributed to two of Denmark’s four goals in the previous meeting between the two sides (one goal, one assist).
Key statistic: San Marino has lost by a margin of at least
San Marino – Denmark : Betting Tips
OVER 3.5 GOALS Odds: 1.50
