National Team in Vienna, Cevoli: “Teams and stadiums like these must give us extra motivation”

The San Marino National Team arrived in Vienna shortly before lunchtime to complete their preparation on site for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier in Canada, Mexico and the United States, away to Austria. Tomorrow’s match, scheduled for 20:45 at the Ernst Happel Stadium, is expected to draw 42,000 fans. Among them will be around 60 San Marino supporters, travelling not only from San Marino and Italy but also from other European and non-European countries, to back the Titani in their game against the leading contenders to win the group. The match will be broadcast live and free-to-air by San Marino RTV.

In the late afternoon, Roberto Cevoli (Head Coach) and Matteo Sammaritani (defender) spoke at the pre-match press conference. For the just-turned-16 full-back, this is his first official call-up and, should he make his debut in the Austrian capital, he would become the youngest player ever to feature in an international match for San Marino. The current record is held by Mauro Valentini, who made his debut at 17 years, 10 months and 9 days. “The emotions I will feel tomorrow evening will certainly be indescribable, because at 16 years of age I obviously have no direct experience of matches like this. When the call-up came through last night, I was amazed and pleasantly surprised,” said the very young San Marino defender.

Asked about the dangers that a match of this kind, in such a stadium, can present, Roberto Cevoli replied: “Right from the first game of these World Cup qualifiers, we fully realised how important goal difference is in a small group like this, where many teams are pushing to finish in the top two. However, rather than creating concern, this situation must actually give us extra motivation to perform well on the pitch. Playing matches in beautiful, historic venues like this, in front of so many people, is always a wonderful experience. We are facing a strong team who will most likely be at the World Cup next year; that does not change the fact that we will approach a game this difficult trying to grow further and to cause them problems whenever we can.”