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San Marino’s best results in international
competition have been in World Cup qualifiers
where the team drew 0-0 at home against Turkey in
March 1993 in their first ever World Cup qualifying
campaign and eight years later in April 2001 when
they drew 1-1 away against Latvia. The scorer
of that historic goal was defender Nicola Albani,
who had celebrated his 18th birthday just 10 days
earlier.
Their biggest defeats were 13-0 at home to
Germany in September 2006, 10-0 away to
Poland in April 2009, 10-1 away to Belgium in
February 2001, 9-0 away to Ukraine in September
2013 and 8-0 away to Belgium in September
2005, while they held Lithuania to 1-0 at home in
November 2004 and Belgium to 2-1 at home in
March 2005.
In their World Cup qualifying campaigns, up to last
month's 1-0 defeat at home to Azerbaijan, San
Marino have played 57 games, won none, drawn
two, lost 55, scoring nine goals and conceding 259.
There is one record the San Marino team can
certainly take pride in: back in November 1993
in Bologna they scored the fastest goal ever in a
World Cup qualifier when Davide Gualtieri netted
against England after just eight seconds!
In Euro qualifiers their record is also - to say
the least - disappointing. They have played a
total of 46 games, losing every one, with a goals
record of six goals for and 200 conceded. In the
Euro 2008 qualifiers San Marino suffered their
heaviest ever margin of defeat, 13-0 at home to
Germany in the Stadio Olimpico di Seraville in
September 2006. It is also the largest margin of
defeat in any match in the history of the European
Championships.
Former national team coach Giampaolo Mazza
was in charge from 1998 to 2014 and was the
longest serving national coach in Europe. He
almost achieved that elusive first competitive
victory and Republic of Ireland fans will recall
with a shudder how one of those rare successes
nearly came in February 2007 in the stadium in the
hills above Rimini against Steve Staunton's side
in a Euro 2008 qualifier. Forward Manuel Marani
scored on 86 minutes to equalise Kevin Kilbane's
49th minute strike only for Stephen Ireland to dash
those dreams with a goal four minutes into added
time, with the referee blowing the final whistle three
seconds after the re-start.
All-time top goalscorer for San Marino is 40-year-
old Andrea ‘Andy’ Selva, who stepped down as
captain of the national team in October 2015. He
has scored eight goals in 73 appearances.
San Marino's record in competitive games since
they played in the qualifiers for Euro 92 is: played
83, won 0, drawn 2, lost 81, goals for 13, against
360.
The San Marino national stadium is the Stadio
Olimpico with a capacity of 6664 (all seated)
- around 24% of the population of San Marino.
The stadium was opened in 1969. Spectators are
accommodated in two stands at either side of
the pitch. There is an athletics track around the
perimeter of the pitch. As well as the national
team, the stadium is used by SC Faetano, AC
San Marino are the true ‘minnows’ of European football. The tiny republic
founded in 301 AD is situated in the Apennine mountains in Italy just outside
Rimini and covers an area of just 24 square miles with a population just over
33,000. The national side, which began to play competitive football in 1990,
has still to win a game in a qualification campaign.
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