Bosnia-Herzegovina vs San Marino Prediction: Hosts to continue impressive start to qualifying

It's top against bottom this weekend in Group H of World Cup qualifying, as Bosnia-Herzegovina take on San Marino on Saturday afternoon (14:00) at the Bilino Polje Stadium.

After enjoying back-to-back victories in March, Bosnia are aiming to maintain their early stronghold on the group, as just one team advances automatically. Meanwhile, the visitors are the perennial whipping boys in European qualifying, losing 5-1 against Romania at home in their last qualifier. Read on for my Bosnia-Herzegovina vs San Marino predictions, as well as the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Sergej Barbarez's 26-man squad will be led by veteran skipper Edin Dzeko, who plies his trade in Turkey these days for Fenerbache.

However, established professionals such as Sead Kolasinac, Rade Krunic and Sheffield United defender Anel Ahmedhodzic all miss out - the latter recently pulled out from international duty for personal reasons.

As for San Marino, Nicola Nanni will carry most their hopes on his shoulders, after the 25-year-old scored twice during their successful League C campaign in the Nations League last year.

Pietro Amici started between the sticks in the 5-1 defeat to Romania and looks set to keep his place this weekend, and he'll potentially be shielded by a back four of Giacomo Benvenuti, Michele Cevoli, Tommaso Benvenuti and Alessandro Tosi.

Nicko Sensoli could also be in contention to start after the teenage forward's goal against Lichtenstein earned San Marino their first competitive win back in September.

Bosnia-Herzegovina vs San Marino Odds

Unsurprisingly, the hosts are massive favourites to win this match at 1/100, giving them an implied win probability of 99%, while the draw is 20/1 and a San Marino win can be backed at a whopping 66/1.

Dzeko leads the anytime goalscorer market at 2/5, along with Ermedin Demirovic, while Luka Kulenovic is next in the betting at 1/2.

Ermedin Demirovic to score 2 or more goals @ 9/5

With the hosts being such a short price in terms of the match result, I've opted to look at the goalscorer market.

VfB Stuttgart forward Ermedin Demirovic has had a brilliant season in front of goal, scoring in Bosnia's last qualifier at home against Cyprus, and he heads into this weekend on 20 goals for the campaign.

I'm backing him to score two or more here, as San Marino shipped five against Romania last time out and aren't exactly renowned for their ability to keep clean sheets.

Bosnia-Herzegovina over 4.5 goals @ 5/4

The hosts haven't been a high-scoring team in recent years - in fact, you'd have to go back to 2023 for the last time they scored more than twice in a game - but there's an opportunity to rack up the score here.

Following on from my first tip, I believe Bosnia can pepper the San Marino net on Saturday - and they're due a big result against this weekend's opponents.

The hosts have scored just six times across their two meetings with San Marino, and with them looking to continue their impressive start to qualifying, they should ease past La Serenissima here.

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