San Marino booked its first victory in twenty years on Thursday night. Just like in 2004, Liechtenstein was the victim, this time in an official international match. For the football dwarf, a negative record series has finally been broken.
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2004 was a particularly good football year for San Marino. On 28 April of that year, Andy Selva scored the only goal in the practice match against Liechtenstein in the fifth minute. It was San Marino’s first ever victory. Later that year, four World Cup qualifying matches were played. Result: zero points, zero goals and thirteen goals conceded.
San Marino is a favorite opponent for record hunters. In 2011, the Dutch booked their biggest win ever against the enclave (11-0), several other countries also reached double figures against the small country. Scoring a goal is often celebrated by San Marino as a victory, because victories are so rare for the country.
With the advent of the Nations League, the path to victory seemed to become somewhat easier, but since the tournament was founded, San Marino had failed to impress. Until Thursday night. Once again, Liechtenstein was the victim. Since that victory in 2004, San Marino had gone 142 games without a win, a negative record series in football. In those 142 games, only six draws were achieved, but on Thursday night, things went differently in front of their home crowd.
SAN MARINO WON. THAT’S THE TWEET.
— San Marino fan account (@SanMarino_FA) September 5, 2024
In the first half, San Marino escaped from a deficit, a goal by Fabio Luque Notaro was disallowed for offside. Shortly after the break, Nicko Sensoli was able to strike. After poor defending by Liechtenstein, he came between the defender and the keeper to the ball to make it 1-0. It was already San Marino’s second goal in 2024.
Earlier this year, the country already attempted to break the negative record series by inviting the team from Saint Kitts and Nevis, an island with fewer inhabitants than Terneuzen, for the two-match series. Result: a 1-3 defeat and a 0-0 draw.
Liechtenstein did contribute to the football miracle, because after Sensoli’s goal, no more goals were scored in the Olympic stadium of San Marino. So San Marino won a match again after 7,435 days.
THEY DID IT. THE FIRST EVER COMPETITIVE WIN, NO ONE CAN TAKE THAT AWAY FOR SAN MARINO. TODAY SAN MARINO WROTE FOOTBALL HISTORY. THANK YOU SENSOLI, THANK YOU SAN MARINO. FORZA TITANI.
— San Marino fan account (@SanMarino_FA) September 5, 2024
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