San Marino vs Cyprus Predictions

While Cyprus have little chance of catching the top two in Group I, they could claim just their second win of the campaign on Monday night. They are heading to San Marino for their meeting with the group’s bottom side. The hosts are among the very poorest sides in Europe, so can they find some inspiration from somewhere to shock heavy favourites Cyprus? The visitors have struggled for results in this group so far, but the bookies are convinced that they are far too good for the hosts.

San Marino were braced for a heavy defeat on Friday night when Belgium rolled into town. Despite all their attacking talent the Red Devils could only rack up four goals here. The hosts will be looking to keep things close on Monday night, but they will have little hope of getting anything from the game. San Marino have lost their last 32 matches across all competitions, which shows how poor they are in relation to the rest of Europe.

Cyprus could only draw 1-1 at home to Kazakhstan on Friday night, a poor result which shows that they are miles away from a place at the Euros. Their Nations League campaign saw them relegated to the bottom tier, so they could well face San Marino on the same level next year. The visitors come here with just two goals in their last four games, while their poor away form suggests they won’t repeat their 5-0 win from their home clash with this week’s opponents.

In the last two years, Cyprus have scored more than once away from home on one occasion. In their previous qualifying campaign, they were able to produce a solid win over Gibraltar at home, but they narrowly won 2-1 in the away meeting. Meanwhile, San Marino have been able to keep the score down in home clashes with the likes of Scotland, Belarus and Moldova of late, conceding only five goals across those three.

Overall, we don’t see Cyprus pulling off a thumping victory in this away trip. Their form on the road shows how shaky they are, while we think that San Marino can stay organised long enough to keep the score down against poor opposition. While they were beaten 4-0 on Friday, they should take encouragement from that game given that they were facing the best side in the world. It would hardly be a surprise if Cyprus couldn’t match Belgium’s score here, which has us backing an away win with under 3.5 goals along with a 2-0 victory for the visitors.