San Marino vs England

England head to the San Marino Stadium to take on minnows San Marino, looking to all but cement their top-spot finish in World Cup qualification Group I.

Another humiliating World Cup qualifying campaign for FIFA’s worst-ranked nation has seen San Marino lose all nine Group I matches by an aggregate score of 36-1. Though each of their four home defeats in this qualifying campaign has yielded a full-time margin of 2+ goals, they can at least find some confidence in scoring their solitary goal against England’s top-two adversaries Poland. Nonetheless, it will take nothing short of a miracle from ‘La Serenissima’ here to pick up their first World Cup qualifying point since April 2001. Indeed, they’ve lost all seven previous World Cup/Euro qualifiers against England, conceding an average of 6.00 goals per game.

England technically still need a point here to confirm the top place in Group I and their seventh straight World Cup finals appearance, having won all but two of their nine 2022 World Cup qualifiers so far (D2). That should be a matter of formality, with the ‘Three Lions’ winning their previous three away H2Hs by a margin of 6+ goals. A 5-0 home thrashing of Albania last time out saw England score all five goals before half-time, which is a sharp contrast to their attacking output on the road. Just three of England’s 12 World Cup qualifying goals scored away from home this campaign have come before half-time. Regardless, another effortless triumph is well on the cards, especially given England last conceded a goal against a bottom-seeded side in a World Cup qualifier in March 2001.