For England, What's the Point in Playing a Team Like San Marino?
WEMBLEY STADIUM, LONDON—Many international matchups pit far superior sides against minnows, but rarely do we see a gargantuan mismatch akin to the one at Wembley on Thursday evening.
England may have only notched five goals against a lowly, amateur San Marino side during the European Championship qualifying the match, but the gulf in class was so vast, at times you stopped to wonder why the two teams were even tussling.
San Marino coach Pierangelo Manzaroli admitted pre-match that it was a case of "damage limitation" for his side, per Tom Allnutt of the Press Association (h/t Daily Mail), and the David and Goliath comparisons were exceptionally easy to draw.
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
The attendance count in north London for this match was 55,990—over 22,000 more than the total population of San Marino, a tiny microstate dropped in the middle of Italian land. Just two of the starting XI are "professional" footballers by our standards; accountants, electricians and students took to the pitch in blue on Thursday evening.
A question that may well have popped into many of the spectators' minds during the game will have been "why are we playing this game?" and it's one that should be directed straight to UEFA. The first downside to expanding the qualifying and Euro 2016 tournament proper is the easier ride big teams get in the build-up; the second is the effective non-event matches like these.
Twenty-four teams will contest in France (up from 16) and with two guaranteed qualifying spots per group, it's doubtful any big teams will slip up enough times to miss qualification. Even if you miss the top two, there's a play-off for third-placed teams.
It was a big night out for San Marino, granted, and the nation will be proud of their team's performance in defence, but what use is the 90 minutes to England? Roy Hodgson is attempting to ready his side for the European Championships in France, and he's getting absolutely nowhere with games such as this on the schedule.
Winning away in Basel essentially sealed England's qualification in the first game. Bar the return leg against Switzerland at home, there are no reasonable tests.
"I thought San Marino were better this year, so they're making strides forward, but it's going to take a long while before they can beat a team like us—I hope!" Hodgson told reporters in the post-match press conference.
San Marino rank joint-last in the world with Bhutan (208th) and have zero points on FIFA's scale. For Hodgson, they're likely No. 208 on his list of teams he'd wish to play and warm up against ahead of the finals in 20 months time.
It's likely 80 percent of the players in the Three Lions' squad were told to take it easy. Hodgson will have fielded several calls from managers asking him to rest a player entirely.
Ideally, teams of San Marino's ilk should be asked to play a pre-qualifier. They should never be excluded from the competition—they're part of Europe and deserve a chance to play—but qualifying could be streamlined, made more meaningful and, above all, more competitive, if they played a fixture or two to get into the qualifying stages proper.
The Asian region entertains four rounds of qualifying before the World Cup nominees are decided; Africa employ three separate stages before a final set of play-offs decide theirs.
The fans voting Joe Hart Man of the Match with over 60 percent of the vote was a form of protest—despite the FA's efforts to reduce ticket prices to a rather reasonable (approx. £25) price.
*Quotes obtained first-hand.
If you read and appreciate my work, i'd be grateful if you voted for me in the best established football writer in the 2014 Football Blogging Awards here: http://bit.ly/1qTsc5S
