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San Marino vs Scotland Predictions

  • 17:00
  • Expired
  • Stadio Olimpico di Serravalle
San Marino
Scotland
  • Sky Sports Main Event
  • Sky Sports Football

odds when tipped

odds when tipped

San Marino vs Scotland Predictions

This is a mission that will primarily be about restoring pride for Scotland after the most humbling of evenings in Kazakhstan in midweek. They will clearly be expected to beat minnows San Marino this Sunday and get their first Euro 2020 qualifying points on the board. Anything less would most likely spell the end for Alex McLeish’s second spell in charge of the national team.

Scotland put in one of their worst ever performances on Thursday, going down 3-0 away to the Kazakhs. They do at least have the insurance of a guaranteed play-off berth following a decent Nations League campaign and they may well need it judging by their start to this group. All they can really do here is record a morale boosting win ahead of a double-header against Cyprus and group favourites Belgium in June.

San Marino are almost certainly still the very worst side in Europe with even the likes of Gibraltar and Andorra picking up a few results in recent years. They haven’t avoided defeat in 28 matches, so any Scots fearing things could hit a fresh low in Serravalle on Sunday don’t really have anything to fear. San Marino’s most recent result was a 0-0 draw against Estonia in 2014, which they celebrated with a lap of honour, and the part-time outfit are likely to spend almost all of this game on the back foot.

They have at least been keeping the score down in some of their recent home fixtures. Their heaviest home defeat in the Nations League was 3-0 and they came within 13 minutes of getting another 0-0 draw against Moldova. 12 of their last 16 home internationals have produced under 4.5 goals in total so it’s a bit of a myth to suggest they get absolutely hammered every time they play, although they continue to offer very little going forward. Even in the Nations League against fellow minnows, they failed to score in any of their 6 matches.

Scotland have nothing to gain and everything to lose here so there will probably be some tension in their camp ahead of this match. Their disjointed showing in just about every department on Thursday night suggests this is a side that may simply need time on the pitch together to really gel into something like an effective team unit.

They should have comfortably enough individual quality to win this match but there was nothing about Thursday’s performance that suggests they will run riot even against such limited opposition. Backing Scotland & Under 4.5 Goals could be the way to go.

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