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[monks data]
Saint Lucia national football team
International Friendly
Nov 17, 2022 at 10pm UK
Beausejour Stadium
San Marino national football team

St Lucia
1 - 1
San Marino

FT(HT: 1-0)
Lazzari (90+4')

Preview: Saint Lucia vs. San Marino - prediction, team news, lineups

Sports Mole previews Thursday's International Friendlies clash between Saint Lucia and San Marino, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

Saint Lucia host San Marino in an international friendly match on Thursday.

Neither nation qualified for the forthcoming World Cup, meaning this friendly - which is being held at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground - is more about building confidence for the future.


Match preview

Since attempting to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in the early 1990s, St Lucia have never come particularly close to reaching international football's grandest tournament.

Their best achievement was advancing beyond the first round of CONCACAF qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but they finished bottom of Group D with only one point from six matches.

More recently, St Lucia decided to withdraw from qualifying for the 2022 World Cup for unknown reasons, but they did play their first fixtures since the coronavirus pandemic in June earlier this year, beating Dominica and Anguilla to gain promotion to the second tier of CONCACAF's Nations League.

As such, they will have confidence of beating the lowest-ranked nation in world football on Thursday, with head coach Stern John hoping to build on his decent start in charge after being appointed in May.

San Marino manager Fabrizio Constantini on September 26, 2022© Reuters

Indeed, San Marino's 1-0 win over Liechtenstein in a friendly in April 2004 remains their only ever victory as a footballing nation since playing their first official match in 1990.

They have lost all but nine of the almost 200 matches they have played, drawing on eight occasions, most recently in a friendly against Seychelles in September.

Seemingly, the San Marino Football Federation is determined to break their winless cycle and move up the FIFA World Rankings as a result, as they are increasingly organising friendlies against weaker nations from other federations.

Having finished bottom of their Nations League group in the bottom tier for the third successive campaign, head coach Fabrizio Costantini needs all the help that he can get get his hands on to turn his nation's fortunes around ahead of two back-to-back friendlies on the Caribbean island.

Saint Lucia form (all competitions):


San Marino International Friendlies form:


San Marino form (all competitions):



Team News

San Marino's Michael Battistini in action on June 12, 2022© Reuters

St Lucia's key figure in their squad is arguably Kurt Frederick, who has scored eight goals from 46 caps for his country despite often playing as a left-back.

Doneal Lionel will be hoping to make his international debut against San Marino.

The visitors, meanwhile, have much more international experience within their ranks, with Mirko Palazzi their most-capped player with 70 and counting.

However, there are still seven potential debutants making the trip to St Lucia, with two fixtures in the space of four days likely to see most of them appear on the pitch at some point.

Saint Lucia possible starting lineup:
Barclett; Myers, Doxilly, Thomas, Evans; Frederick, Pearson; Davies, Roserie; McFarlane, Remy

San Marino possible starting lineup:
Benedettini; Franciosi, Palazzi, Tosi; Zafferani, Mularoni, Golinucci, Rinaldi, Grandoni; Rinaldi, Vitaioli


SM words green background

We say: Saint Lucia 0-0 San Marino

San Marino are often well organised defensively but find goals extremely hard to come by, so we can envisage them avoiding defeat for only the 10th time in their history.

St Lucia may be rusty having only played two fixtures in the last three years, so they could settle for a draw ahead of targeting a win against the same opponents on Sunday.


For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.


Top tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 2.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 2.5:data


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Game History

How you voted: St Lucia vs San Marino

Saint Lucia
54.8%
Draw
27.4%
San Marino
17.8%
73
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