San Marino National Team Profile
The story of Europe's worst international football team
That first match, against Switzerland, was a qualifier for the 1992 European Championships and ended in a 4-0 drubbing that would soon become the norm for the San Marino players.
Worst ever qualification record
San Marino can boast the worst qualification campaigns for both the European Championships and the World Cup.
In 1998, San Marino finished bottom of their group having lost every game convincingly (3-0 against Belgium being their best result) and failing to score a single goal in the process. Their final record read; played 8, lost 8, scored 0, conceded 42.
The qualifying for Euro 2004 was similarly bad. They finished bottom of the group with 8 defeats from 8 games and again failed to score a single goal. They did come close to a result however, as Latvia needed a last minute goal to defeat them 1-0.
To this day, San Marino have never won a qualification game following 19 years of trying. Further more, they have never scored more than 3 goals in any one campaign.
First San Marino win
Although they have never won a qualification match, San Marino have recorded a win in a friendly match.
On April 28th, 2004, San Marino defeated fellow perennial strugglers Liechtenstein 1-0 after a hard fought game in Serravalle. A fifth minute goal from Andy Selva (who leads San Marino's all time scoring charts with a somewhat modest 8 goals) was enough to seal the victory.
This was San Marino's first and only win to date. They have only racked up three other positive results in their history. Those were a 0-0 draw with Turkey in 1993, a 1-1 draw in Latvia in 2001 and a 2-2 draw with Liechtenstein in 2003.
San Marino ruin England World Cup dream
Despite their lowly reputation, San Marino have managed to prevent England from qualifying for a major tournament.
In 1993, England were left in third place in their group (the top two qualify) with one game left. They needed to win by seven clear goals to qualify, which in normal terms would seem impossible. However, with their last game being a home tie against San Marino, England were confident of achieving their goal.
Against all the odds, San Marino scored the fastest goal in World Cup qualifying history as Davide Gualtieri netted in just 8 seconds of the game. Although England went on to score seven goals and win the game 7-1, they failed to qualify due to Gualtieri's strike.
The result still sends shivers down England fan's spines when mentioned and is remembered as one of the worst days in their long history.
San Marino's heaviest defeats
Heavy defeats have been something of a speciality in San Marino. Anything under a 3-0 defeat is celebrated like a victory, such is their low expectations.
Surprisingsly, the recent 10-0 defeat to Poland was not their heaviest defeat. In fact, San Marino have conceded 10 or more in a game on 4 separate occasions over the years.
Standing alone as their heaviest ever defeat is the 13-0 mauling they received from Germany on September 6th, 2006. That came in qualifying for Euro 2008, and needless to say, San Marino finished bottom of their group losing all 12 games and conceding a whopping 57 goals in the process.
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