San Marino, is more famous for its "named" Grand Prix F1 circuit, which actually takes place at Imola, not in San Marino. In football, the country is FIFA ranked 211th (out of 211), worse than The Bahamas, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The nation's first international was against Canada in 1986 with a 0-1 defeat. Their biggest win was a 1-0 thumping of Leichenstein in 2004 and the heaviest defeat 0-13 v Germany in 2006.
In November 1994, Davide Gualtieri scored the fastest goal in World Cup history, after Stuart Pearce under hit a back pass after 8.3 seconds of a qualifier played in Bologna, watched by just over 2,700. The goal scorer dined out on that for the rest of his career and at 49, he is a computer salesman, who speaks no English and has his wife translate for him when he is interviewed; every time his country draws England in a competition.
Gualtieri continued to play for the San Marino national team until 2000, when he retired due to injury. In 2020, he appeared on the TV series, "Harry's (Redknapp) heroes-you are having a laugh", assembling a Sanmarinese team to play against a team of 90s England players once more. So far the two countries have met five times with scores at 6-0 World Cup, 1-7 WC, 5-0 WC, 0-8 WC, 5-0 European Champs, 0-6 EC 5/9/2015
When England thumped San Marino 1-7 in a World Cup qualifier away in 1993 the team was:
Seaman, Dixon Pallister Walker Pearce Ripley Ince Platt Sinton Wright Ferdinand. Not exactly convincing is it?
The first unofficial international San Marino played was in 1986 v a Canadian Olympic side and the first official international was against Switzerland in 1990, they didn't win 0-4.
They have played 174 times, won 1 drawn 6 and lost the rest obviously. Goals For 24 Against 730. The one win was against Liechenstein in a friendly.
On Nov11th 2020 they lost to Latvia at home 0-3 in a friendly and have drawn with Gibraltar 0-0 in the UEFA Nations League D.
San Marino recently with an international pending, had twins playing in goal and at centre back-their understanding is not as good as it should be, perhaps. One of their players could not play because of a staffing problem in his bar, so he pulled out!
With a population of only 31,000 you would think he could find a temporary barman? Great badge!
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