Euro 2016: San Marino 0-2 Lithuania

Monday 8^th September 2014
European Championships Qualifying Group E
Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino

San Marino 0-2 Lithuania

San Marino’s Euro 2016 campaign got under way last week in Serravalle with a promising if ultimately futile performance from the boys in blue.

Two first half goals were sufficient to take the points for the Baltic nation, but the narrowness of the scoreline come full time with provide some small crumbs of comfort for San Marino.  It was a bad start however, as Lithuania took the lead after just four minutes when Mindaugas Kalonas was put clear on the right hand side and crossed for Deivydas Matulevicius to prod home into an unguarded net.

European Championships Qualifier: San Marino v. Lithuania

Monday 8^th September 2014
European Championships Qualifying Group E
Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino

San Marino v. Lithuania

San Marino get their Euro 2016 campaign up and running with a home fixture against Lithuania; a match which according to the world rankings represents San Marino’s best hope for avoiding a defeat in this group.

Best hope it may be but it’s a rather slim and unlikely one.  Lithuania are currently ranked 103^rd by FIFA as compared to San Marino’s 208^th, but that does make them the second lowest ranked team in the group.  For completeness, the other rankings are Switzerland (9^th), England (20^th), Slovenia (39^th) and Estonia (93^rd).  It doesn’t sound quite so bad if I mention that Lithuania re the 45^th ranked European team, a mere 8 places above San Marino, but let’s be honest; the world ranking figure is a truer reflection in this case.