San Marino win first match in 20 years as FIFA’s lowest-ranked team edges Liechtenstein for historic feat

San Marino, FIFA’s lowest-ranked men’s team, snapped a 20-year losing streak on Thursday, defeating Liechtenstein 1-0 in the UEFA Nations League for their first win in two decades — and the team’s first-ever victory in a competitive match.

Nicko Sensoli scored the game’s lone goal in the 53rd minute, giving San Marino the edge in a fairly even matchup. Liechtenstein, ranked 11 places ahead of the opposition, dominated possession and matched San Marino with eight shots. They were unable to put a shot on target, though, while San Marino had two and scored on one of them.

They snapped a 176-match winless run in competitive matches, tying just five of those encounters while losing the other 171.

It was a monumental feat for the small landlocked nation of roughly 33,000 people, who have not celebrated a win since April 2004 in a friendly against Lichtenstein, which they also won 1-0.

With the win, San Marino now sit atop Group 1 in League D of the UEFA Nations League, though the only other team in the group, Gibraltar, has yet to play their first match. League D is the lowest tier in the Nations League, but teams can be promoted to League C and take a stab at slowly rising up the ranks of European soccer.

San Marino have long been one of the bottom-dwellers in Europe, picking up lopsided losses throughout their history. Their highest FIFA ranking was 118, nearly 100 places above their current placement of 210, in 1993 but have slid since, picking up their biggest defeat in a 13-0 loss to Germany in 2006.

San Marino will eye their first-ever winning streak on Tuesday when they take on 152-place Moldova in a friendly and will resume their Nations League campaign on Oct. 10 at 198th-ranked Gibraltar.