first “official” with Malta, with Estonia and Cyprus bittersweet memories
The Nations League draw for San Marino cannot be defined as benevolent. First of all because, for the second time in a row, the biancazzurri are in D2, the group of three, then without other second tier teams. And even the top seeds in question, on paper, are of much greater depth than Gibraltar and Liechtenstein.
let’s start withonly safe opponent, Malta, coached by the former Italian U21 coach Devis Eats. Those of Nations will be i first official matches between the two national teams, which so far have only crossed paths in the friendly match of August 2012: he was a pyrotechnician 3-2 for the Maltese, even then led by an Italian, Pietro Ghedin, with Manuel Marani and Danilo Rinaldi to score the goals of Mazza’s team.
The last contender instead will decide between 24 and 29 March, when Cyprus and Estonia they will compete in the playout to decree the relegation to League D. Even here it could have been better, considering that the other play-off opposes Moldova – theoretically the weakest of the quartet – and Kazakhstan. And the rankings of the qualifications in Qatar 2022 seem to confirm this: Moldova, Kazakhstan and Liechtenstein – the other seeded – have respectively 1, 3 and 1 point; the other way around, the Baltics made 4 – putting Belarus behind them – while the two island teams closed their group paired at 5, snatching points also from Slovenia and Slovakia.
Between the two asterisks, the precedents would induce cheering Estonia, to which, in November 2014, the national team of Manzaroli tore a 0-0, last useful result before the recent X with Liechtenstein and Gibraltar. And also in the other two games played, San Marino won honorable defeats, a 2-0 in the return of the qualifiers to Euro2016 and a 0-1 in the remote friendly match in 2002. The matches with Cyprus, that in the recent race at Euro 2020 he gave the boys from Varrella a 5-0 and a 0-4. Further away, but always in the qualifiers for the continental tournament – Euro 2000 and Euro 2008 – the other precedents: double 0-1 at home, 4-0 and 3-0 away.