San Marino vs Moldova Predictions

It’s crunch-time now in the UEFA Nations League, particularly for the smaller teams in the continent, for whom this represents their only realistic chance of making it to Euro 2020. This Thursday’s game comes from League D and it features the bottom two teams, although Moldova do still possess a slim chance of winning this group whereas San Marino are already out of the running.

That would not only earn the visitors promotion but would give them a chance to compete for a place in Euro 2020. They simply have to win this match to stand any chance of that though and if Luxembourg beat Belarus on the same night, they will not be able to finish top regardless of the result. A 4-0 defeat in Luxembourg on match-day 1 was a huge blow to Moldova’s hopes in this competition but they haven’t lost or even conceded a goal since then.

As for San Marino, they might have hoped this competition would give them a chance to actually pick up a few results but even against other minnows, they’ve largely been outclassed and there is an air of familiarity about them, currently sitting on 0 points with 0 goals scored. Their final two matches are at home and they’ll be hoping to at least scrape a draw from one of their fixtures over the next few days.

That looks unlikely though in truth. They last avoided defeat in an international match in November 2014 with their 0-0 home draw against Estonia sparking huge celebrations in Serravalle. However, the result wouldn’t prove the start of any great revival or improvement in their football, as has been the case with one or two of the other smaller teams in Europe. They’ve lost 25 consecutive matches since then and over a year has passed since they even scored a goal, in a 5-1 defeat to Azerbaijan.

Moldova at least have a wider talent pool and they are comfortably the better side. They’ll be disappointed not to be in with a better chance of winning this group but defensively they’ve been solid since that opening day defeat, keeping 3 straight clean sheets, while they were 2-0 winners over San Marino last month.

Indeed 4 of their last 5 matches have seen them shut the opposition out and that should be the case again here against a toothless San Marino attack. The hosts have been beaten by at least 2 goals in all of their last 16 internationals, so overall backing Moldova -2.0 Asian Handicap looks pretty appealing here.

Read our Asian Handicap Guide for more on this market.