San Marino Actually Win a Game of Football

Posted on by footybet
San Marino team
San Marino team (Credit Lukas Raich via Wikipedia)

US philosopher, politician and inventor, Benjamin Franklin, once said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Had he been around 200 years later he may well have added “and San Marino losing at football” to that list. Or, if he wanted to play it safe, “San Marino failing to win”.

The tiny landlocked nation, an Italian enclave, has a population of just 33,000. For reference, there are around 11 million sheep in Wales, enough for 333 of them for every single Sammarinese. And a few left over for eating too. For many years they have been a football laughing stock and are routinely considered to be among the worst nations to play the sport.

However, on the 5th of September, 2024, the unthinkable happened and the nation with a population roughly the same as Billericay or Brighouse won a game of football. What’s more, at the time of writing, they are top of the league! Admittedly, it is a league with just three teams with the other two are Gibraltar and Liechtenstein. And San Marino have only played one game. But even so, for the first time in their history, and quite possibly the last time for many, many years, San Marino fans can chant: “Top, top, top, top, top of the league!”

Can We Play You Every Week?

Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle
Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle (Credit Labicanense via Wikipedia)

The win was remarkable for many reasons but the most striking is that this was the first time that San Marino had ever won a competitive game of football. Their only other win, ever, came against Liechtenstein in a friendly in 2004. That is Liechtenstein, population 40,000, the “false teeth capital of the world”, and who are truly woeful at football.

It was a dour game, as clashes featuring these sides often are, at least when they are not being vigorously and ruthlessly put to the sword by far superior opponents. It was one of few chances, with the eventual winners mustering just two shots on target. Which was two more than Liechtenstein, although the losers edged things from an xG perspective (0.51 to 0.49). There were only three corners during the whole match, with very little in the way of goalmouth action, nor, unsurprisingly, real class.

Nicko Sensoli is the man to have written himself into San Marino’s exceptionally limited football folklore, the 19-year-old midfielder scoring the only goal of the game. Sensoli, who plays in the fourth tier of Italian football, lobbed the Liechtenstein goalkeeper, Benjamin Buchel, in the 53rd minute. San Marino, playing at home here, at the Stadio Olimpico di Serravalle (capacity 6,600), then held firm to score a huge victory – any and all wins being seismic for them.

San Marino’s Record

San Marino FC logoSan Marino is a tiny nation in just about every sense. Its small population lives in an area approximately 50% the size of Manchester. It is to be expected, then, that they should be unable to compete with teams such as England and Germany. Indeed, in the past, the Three Lions have won 10-0 at the Stadio Olimpico di Serravalle, whilst the Germans are the record winners at the stadium, having triumphed 13-0 there in 2006.

In World Cup qualification games they have been beaten 74 times in 76 games, managing two draws. That has left their goal difference at minus 344, equating to roughly a 5-0 defeat every game. In the Euros they have fared slightly worse, losing 85 out of 86 games, scoring just 11 times and conceding 371.

In comparison, one might say they have taken the Nations League by storm, even if they did lose every game during the inaugural 2018/19 season of the competition and every match in 2022/23 too. But in between they came close to holding their own, managing two draws and two defeats from their four games in 2020/21. When we throw in their table-topping performance so far in the 2024/25 competition, it isn’t the most unreasonable statement in the world to suggest that the Nations League has been kind to them.

Win Number One

Their only previous win came against Liechtenstein as well, by the same 1-0 score as their recent success. When not raucously screaming about their top-of-the-league status, San Marino fans are almost sure to be singing “1-0, to the Marino”. In truth, when your top goalscorer of all time has just eight goals (Andy Selva, from 73 matches), any wins you do muster are quite likely to be by a goal to nil.

Their first win came on the 28th of April, 2004 at their home stadium in a friendly. 700 fans were (very loosely) packed inside the Olimpico and didn’t have to wait long for a goal, with none other than Selva notching after just five minutes. Again, they were able to hold on and keep a clean sheet and they may have dared to dream that this opening and historic victory might, if not open the floodgates, at least loosen the taps.

Recent Progress


As we know, it was not to be, and whilst San Marino managed the odd decent draw, for example against relative powerhouses Estonia in Euro 2016 qualifying, a second win remained beyond their grasp. Things have definitely improved further over the last five years though, with perhaps their most impressive result coming in 2023 when they gave Denmark a real fright in a game they lost just 2-1.

Even scoring a goal is progress for this tiny nation, the strike against the Danes being their first competitive one for two years, but then being followed up by goals against Kazakhstan and also Finland. They lost those matches 3-1 and 2-1 respectively but when your statistical average result is a 5-0 loss, that is real progress. What’s more, this was the first time in their history they had scored in three consecutive cashes.

San Marino remain 210 of 210 teams in FIFA’s rankings but with results on the up and them managing to schedule more games against similarly poor teams – they have played Saint Kitts and Nevis twice in 2024 – that could change. They have been as high as 118th in the past but getting back into the top 200 is a more reasonable target for now. Liechtenstein are 199th, so there is certainly hope!