The National Team in the heat of Zenica to face Bosnia and Herzegovina

It promises to be a scorching match between Bosnia and Herzegovina and San Marino, both sides playing their third game in FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifying, with the tournament to be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Firstly because of the temperature, forecast to climb well above 30°C at 15:00 tomorrow, when kick-off is scheduled at the Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica. What’s more, the Bosnian venue is expected to be sold out in every section: around 15,000 fans will be urging the home side on to victory tomorrow.

“It’s true that temperatures are milder where we come from, but I don’t want excuses, and I want to give the players even fewer,” began Cevoli at the pre-match press conference. “Beyond that, we have prepared well and as always we will try to play a good game. Our aim is to continue with the development project we have started with these lads. We are aware of how difficult it is to face a very strong side like Bosnia and Herzegovina, but we will try to do what we have always done: be positive in our play, try to carry a threat and hope that the opposition allow us to do so.” Asked by the local media about the recent successes in the UEFA Nations League, the San Marino Head Coach was frank: “The two wins have given us a different level of confidence, though of course the calibre of the teams we face in World Cup and European qualifiers is different. We hope we can continue along the lines of the excellent performances we have delivered in recent months, despite the inevitably greater difficulty, and keep improving step by step. We have an interesting project with these lads: they are good players who are improving significantly. These matches must be an opportunity to gain important experience on which to build a bright future.”

Also speaking to the accredited media was Alberto Riccardi, San Marino defender: “Tomorrow we are expecting a very tough match, because of both the quality of our opponents and the environmental and weather conditions, but our objective does not change: we want to come away with a positive result.” Asked at the press conference about the greatest threat in his area of the pitch, the full-back stressed that “Bosnia and Herzegovina have many players of proven quality, as well as strikers of a very high level. A problem for me immediately becomes a problem for the whole team; therefore, I will not be defending on my own. Rather, we will be a united, compact team, helping each other in every area of the pitch, with the ambition of bringing home a positive result.”

The San Marino National Team held their official training session at the Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica at 16:00 this afternoon, a workout designed to shake off the fatigue from the journey – which began at dawn in San Marino, followed by a charter flight from Rimini to Sarajevo and then a transfer to Zenica. The coaching staff also wanted to recreate climate conditions as close as possible to those expected for tomorrow’s match, which will be broadcast live on San Marino RTV and Titani.tv (web radio) from 14:50 Italian time.

These are Roberto Cevoli’s call-ups for Bosnia and Herzegovina–San Marino: