Roberto Cevoli‘s national team take to the field tomorrow at 6pm against Belarus, the third of four Nations League fixtures. The match will be played on neutral ground at the Illovszky Rudolf Stadion in Budapest, broadcast live on San Marino RTV. It is the key match of the group, as in Group C1 Belarus are the only side the Titans can realistically hope to trouble.
The standings make this clear. After two matchdays, Albania lead with a perfect record of 6 points, while Finland follow with 4. Belarus, however, sit on just one point, having scored no goals and conceded two. San Marino are bottom with zero points, having shipped ten goals across a 0-7 defeat to Finland on 26 September and a 0-3 loss to Albania on the 29th.
History offers little encouragement: the two sides previously met in the inaugural Nations League campaign in 2018, with Belarus winning 5-0 in Minsk and 2-0 on the Titan’s own soil. Since then, however, Belarus have lost some of their edge, and their goal-scoring struggles in this group suggest attack is as much of a problem for them as it is for San Marino.
Cevoli has called up 26 players, four of whom will only join the squad on the eve of the match, having been on Under-21 duty against Spain last night. It is an unprecedented situation for the national team, which for the first time in its history faces more than two matches in quick succession: after Budapest comes an away trip to Albania on Tuesday 6 October at 8:45pm, at the Arena Kombëtare.
The starting point is the performance against Albania, which ended in defeat but featured a solid defensive display, with goalkeeper Edoardo Colombo producing several notable saves. The group stage will then conclude with the return fixture against Belarus at the Stadium on 12 November and the away match in Finland on the 15th.
