Austria will continue their quest for 2026 World Cup qualification when they travel to Serravalle to take on San Marino on Tuesday. The visitors beat Romania in their opening qualifier, while San Marino have now lost three straight games in the qualifying campaign.

As the lowest-ranked team in FIFA's ranking, San Marino knew they would not qualify for the World Cup qualifiers, even if they went into the tournament with a confident mood after their success in the Nations League. San Marino won two, drew one and lost one of their four Nations League games, qualifying for the C division for the first time.

However, the improved quality of World Cup qualifying has led to a decline in results, with the Chinese losing all three of their qualifiers against Cyprus, Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. They at least put in a valiant effort in Saturday's away game, holding off the Bosnian attack for 66 minutes, although Edin Dzeko's goal was ultimately enough to hand the underdogs a 0-1 defeat. With this heavy defeat, San Marino are still seeking their first World Cup qualifying point since a draw with Latvia in June 2001.

Austria endured a disappointing period in the March international window as they failed to qualify for the 2024-25 Nations League. Ralf Rangnick's side lost 3-1 in a two-legged play-off against Serbia and were unable to make an immediate return to League A. Austria has put that result behind them and is instead focusing on ending their long wait for a World Cup, as they look to reach their first final since playing in France in 1998. They got their qualification campaign off to a good start on Saturday at home to Romania, where they edged out 2-1 thanks to goals from Michael Gregoric and Marcel Sabitzer.

Austria will be looking to take three points in their third meeting with San Marino, having won 4-1 in October 1998 and 7-0 in April 1999, respectively, to qualify for the 2000 European Championship.

San Marino predicted starting lineup:

Colombo; Fabbri, Cervoli, Benvenuti, Riccardi; Contadini, Golinucci, Cassadi, Zannoni, Lazzari; Nanni

Austria predicted starting lineup:

Penz; Weimer, Wöber, Linhardt, Mwen; Laimer, Seewald; Schmid, Baumgartner, Sabitzer; Gregoric