England plays San Marino on 9th October at Wembley Stadium for the second round of qualifying for the 2016 European Championship in France in Group E. Kickoff has been set at 19:45.
The first round against the Swiss went well for England who now have to face the small caliber teams like San Marino. There can be no doubt as to the outcome of this one, it will be just a matter of increasing the goal average in favor of the Three Lions, capitalizing on the 2-0 victory in their opening match and making it easy to qualify. The only question in Group E is on which team will be first and which one second, so the only fixture that worries England is the next one against Switzerland in September 2015.
Actually the only pertinent question of this fixture is how many goals England will score. In 2012 it was 5-0 at home and 0-8 in San Marino. In a total of four fixtures between the two sides England have scored 26 goals and conceded none.
It’s highly indicative of what Roy Hodgson thinks of this match, having invited only three strikers. Danny Welbeck, Wayne Rooney and Rickie Lambert. A fourth may be added should Raheem Sterling manage to be available to play. Possibly this will also be the second match that England will keep a clean sheet as San Marino have scored only once in their last 13 matches.
For the record, San Marino have documented only one international victory in a friendly against Liechtenstein and draws with Turkey and Latvia. They have been defeated in all other international matches they ever played.
Can England score seven or more times in this game? Looks a tad improbable, instead, looking at a five or six goal win for the Three Lions.