Nations League returns: San Marino in Tallinn, Estonia clash tomorrow

San Marino’s National Team are ready to return to competitive action with three points on the line, following the March international friendlies against Cape Verde and Lithuania. Tomorrow, against Estonia, the Titans begin their third UEFA Nations League campaign. The Biancoazzurri, who compete in League D, will face Estonia and Malta: whoever tops Group D2 will be promoted to League C. That is the division where the Baltic side were playing until a few months ago, before being relegated by Cyprus in the play-outs last March. San Marino and Estonia have met three times before, one of those in a friendly played in Serravalle (an Estonian 1-0 win on 21 May 2002). A dozen years later came the double-header in EURO 2016 qualifying. At home, the Titans held their opponents to a 0-0 draw (15 November 2014), while seven months later the Baltic side earned a 2-0 victory, with Zenjov scoring in each half, at the very same ground that will host tomorrow’s match. This morning the team departed from Rimini on a charter flight bound for Tallinn. In the afternoon, there will be a press conference and the official training session under the guidance of Fabrizio Costantini and his staff. The San Marino coach met the media together with Matteo Vitaioli who – should he feature tomorrow – would become the most-capped player in the history of the National Team. Born in 1989, he currently has 73 caps, the same number as Andy Selva, who for a long time held the appearance record at international level. “We are expecting a difficult match; Estonia have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years,” commented Vitaioli. “I hope we can reproduce the strong performances we put in a few years ago.” Asked a direct question by the Estonian press, the San Marino forward stressed that “representing your country on this kind of stage is one of the best things that can happen to us as players. And perhaps precisely because San Marino is one of the smallest nations in the European landscape, the sense of belonging we feel is even greater than that of some professional colleagues playing for major national teams.” The San Marino Head Coach outlined the only way to approach the game in Estonia with the aim of delivering an excellent performance: “The key to everything will be humility,” assured Costantini. “We must remain as humble as we are and face Estonia as if they were any other opponent. We are up against a tough, well-coached side that have recently recorded some very good results in qualifying for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. We will prepare for the match as we did for Cape Verde and Lithuania. The team we face tomorrow are no longer at a similar level to ours, as they were some years ago. They certainly won’t make the mistake of underestimating us, and we will try to produce our best possible performance.” Fabrizio Costantini has called up 23 players for tomorrow’s fixture. Estonia v San Marino will be played at the Le Coq Arena, kicking off at 18:00 Italian time, and will be broadcast live in San Marino on San Marino RTV Sport (TV and streaming), with Italian commentary.

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