Cyprus Strolls Past San Marino, 4-0, to Rekindle World Cup Qualification Hopes

It was another routine night of World Cup qualifying in Serravalle, and for San Marino, another entry in a ledger of heartbreak. But for Cyprus—a side that has weathered frustration and false dawns—Sunday’s resounding 4-0 victory at the Stadio Olimpico di Serravalle was more than a statistical formality. It was a controlled, clinical assertion that breathed new life into Cyprus’s long-shot campaign for a berth on football’s grandest stage.

A match that rarely departed from script opened with barely a ripple of resistance from the hosts, who, winless in their last 136 competitive fixtures, looked overwhelmed from the outset. Cyprus, brimming with intent after two consecutive draws that showed flashes of promise, seized initiative inside ten minutes. Loizos Loizou, the 22-year-old winger whose pace and guile have become a Cypriot hallmark, struck crisply in the ninth minute—his low drive tucking neatly inside the far post after a sweeping move down the right.

For San Marino, it was familiar territory: a goal down before their first completed pass in the opposing half, and the sense—palpable in a stadium more accustomed to hosting visiting celebrations than home joy—that another long evening awaited. The hosts’ defensive line compacted, retreating into survival mode, as Cyprus probed patiently in search of an insurance goal.

The first half settled into a lopsided rhythm, the blue shirts of Cyprus dominating possession, the white and light blue of San Marino camped in their own third, chasing shadows and loose balls. Yet for all of Cyprus’s territorial supremacy, the final pass eluded them, and a smattering of home supporters could at least take solace in a 0-1 halftime deficit.

The second act erased even those meager comforts. Cyprus’s defender Stelios Andreou emerged as an unlikely protagonist, climbing above his marker to nod home a well-weighted corner from the right in the 59th minute. If hope had lingered for San Marino at just a single-goal margin, it was extinguished by Andreou’s leap and finish—a moment that punctuated Cyprus’s set-piece acumen.

By the time Grigoris Kastanos coolly slotted home a penalty in the 67th, awarded for a late clumsy challenge on the edge of the area, any question about the result had faded into irrelevance. Kastanos, whose composure in midfield has been the spine of Cyprus’s recent uptick, dispatched the spot-kick with minimal fuss, sending Aldo Simoncini the wrong way—a routine as well-practiced as the Cypriots’ ball rotation around the San Marino box.

Andronikos Kakoullis’s 79th-minute strike—an assured finish from just inside the area after a slick passing move—put a bow on the proceedings and cast San Marino further adrift at the table’s foot.

For the hosts, this was defeat number ten in as many qualification outings—a run featuring a 0-10 capitulation in Austria just days prior, and a 0-6 home loss to Bosnia & Herzegovina last month. San Marino has shown flashes of resistance—the solitary goal in a friendly loss to Malta offered the briefest glimmer—but the narrative remains stubbornly unchanged: a minnow’s struggle against the continent’s tide, with each match a testament to their endurance, if not their quality.

Cyprus, meanwhile, have at last managed to pair performance with reward. Draws against Bosnia and Romania earlier in the campaign left the island nation stuck in an uncomfortable purgatory: too resilient to be written off, not clinical enough to meaningfully threaten the group’s favorites. But the magnitude and professionalism of Sunday’s victory—coming on the heels of a spirited 2-2 stalemate with Bosnia—will serve as a statement of intent for head coach Temur Ketsbaia and his men.

While the three points keep Cyprus within mathematical reach of a playoff berth, the group remains perilous: Austria and Bosnia maintain a firm hold on the automatic and playoff places, and Cyprus’s margin for error is impossibly thin. Yet with the duo of Loizou and Kastanos now finding end product, there is genuine belief that a late run is not entirely beyond them.

Historically, the gulf between these sides has been absolute—San Marino and Cyprus have met four times since 2016, with Cyprus victorious on every occasion by an aggregate of 17-0. Tonight’s result was less an aberration than a resumption of the established order.

For San Marino, the campaign promises more of the same: pride in every battle, experience for a next generation, and hope that one day the numbers will tell a different story. For Cyprus, the focus sharpens. A home tilt against Austria awaits—a test far sterner than tonight’s assignment, and one that will determine whether hopes kindled under the Serravalle lights can burn longer.

For now, Cyprus departs Serravalle with restored confidence and ambition intact. For San Marino, it is back to the drawing board, and another night spent chasing an ever-elusive dawn.