Tricky Slovakia test for the National Team to show courage and mentality

San Marino’s National Team has arrived in Wiener Neustadt, an Austrian city about half an hour by car from the capital Vienna, which will host the official friendly on neutral ground against Slovakia. Kick-off is tomorrow at 18:00 (live on RTV Sport and radio commentary on TITANI.TV): “We will be facing very strong opposition in a hugely demanding match. For us,” said Head Coach Roberto Cevoli, “this fixture has to represent another step forward in the development path we started in January. The feeling in the camp is positive and we’ve prepared well, with the intention of making life difficult for Slovakia.” Calzona’s side will certainly be a tough obstacle: “Both for the quality of their players and for the fact that final decisions on their EURO squad are imminent. Many Slovak players will be fighting for a place in the group that will go to Germany 2024 and will certainly want to catch the eye,” Cevoli added. That said, San Marino have no intention of being lambs to the slaughter: “Tomorrow will be an opportunity to show courage and mentality. Our playing philosophy, which is to be positive and not only defensive, has to be expressed against any opponent. Tomorrow, against a more organised team than Saint Kitts and Nevis, we will have to be ready in this respect as well.” A compact venue and a neutral pitch await in Wiener Neustadt. It is an unusual situation for Slovakia too: “Having outlined the difficulties we will face tomorrow against a compact and competitive team,” began Alessandro Tosi at the press conference, “playing on neutral ground will also mean a different atmosphere. In any case, we remain focused on our goal, which is to produce the best performance we can and make Slovakia’s evening as difficult as possible. We have prepared well; we’ll see how things go tomorrow night.”

---