National team in Parma, Costantini: "Kazakhstan are a team on the rise, but we are also coming into this from a generally positive spell"

The final training session of the San Marino National Team has just concluded at the "Ennio Tardini" Stadium in Parma. Tomorrow night’s match against Kazakhstan (kick-off at 20:45, live on San Marino RTV Sport and TITANI.TV) will effectively be played on neutral ground, given the essential resurfacing works on the pitch at the San Marino Stadium, which could no longer be postponed. In the last meeting between these two national teams, in Serravalle, Filippo Berardi found the net – and today he joined Head Coach Fabrizio Costantini at the pre-match press conference. The San Marino coach wants his players fully focused right from the outset: "Kazakhstan are one of the teams that have developed the most in recent times and they make good use of their strengths: compactness, teamwork and counter-attacks, first and foremost. The win over Denmark was no fluke. They are very well organised, and we know we are in for a tough, physical match. That does not mean we go into it beaten already: we will take the game to them with humility and a real desire to do well. We too are coming from a generally positive period. Aware of our limitations, we will give everything and try to do our very best". Asked about San Marino’s chances of victory, the head coach stressed that the Titani approach every fixture with the intention of taking all three points. To do so, of course, you also need an element of luck to overturn predictions that are invariably against them: "Sometimes you also have to go and earn your luck. We are coming off some good results in official friendlies, despite having a few key players injured at that time. Tomorrow evening, at last, we will have the squad almost at full strength, and we have prepared well for the match – also with the opposition in mind. We know all about Kazakhstan’s qualities; they have produced some excellent performances recently and are very well coached. They are good at getting numbers behind the ball and becoming dangerous straight away when they win it back. In that respect, they are becoming a model in Europe". What does Filippo Berardi remember about that 2019 evening when he scored his first goal for the National Team, precisely against Kazakhstan? "I remember it was pouring with rain that night," he jokes. "It was a good game, even though it ended in a 3-1 defeat. We hadn’t scored at home for a while and we all felt a special emotion." Sweet memories quickly give way to the present, however: "Now we are obviously focused on tomorrow’s game and we hope we can relive that experience. We will be facing a strong, well-drilled side, coming off some important results. We expect a tough match, effectively on neutral ground: we will give 100% to achieve the best result possible".

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