International Football
The San Marino national team played its first unofficial international match in 1986, suffering a 0-1 defeat to the Canadian Olympic team. Its first competitive outing was on November 14, 1990, a 0-4 loss against Switzerland in the European Championship qualifier. These defeats set the tone for most of the following outings of the team, who are regarded as whipping boys in the qualifying sections of the European Championship and the World Cup.
They had a brief moment of glory when they faced England in a World Cup qualifier on November 17, 1993 and took the lead through Davide Gualtieri after just 8.3 seconds - still the fastest goal in World Cup competition. Despite this goal, only San Marino's third at international level, the microstate went on to lose 7-1.
Until recently, San Marino's international record was one of almost total failure, with famous draws against Turkey and Latvia being the only partial successes in an international career that contains over 70 defeats. However, on 29 April 2004, San Marino recorded their first ever win, with a 1-0 victory over Liechtenstein in an international friendly. Andy Selva scored the only goal in a close game that marked the first footballing victory for the republic.
On September 6, 2006, San Marino suffered their biggest ever defeat, losing 13-0 to world giants Germany in the Stadio Olimpico. It was also the largest goal margin defeat in European Championship qualifying history. In the same competition, on February 7 2007, they came close to drawing 1-1 with the Republic of Ireland, but Stephen Ireland scored in the 94th minute, within 8 seconds of the final whistle. The goal scored by San Marino was their first in a European Championship qualifier since losing 4-1 to Austria in 1998.
Read more about this topic: Football In San Marino
Famous quotes containing the word football:
“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)