Tiny San Marino celebrates its 1st ever competitive win in international soccer

SERRAVALLE, San Marino (AP) — The 19-year-old who scored in the San Marino national soccer team’s first ever competitive victory wasn’t even born the only other time that the tiny republic won a game.

That’s because the 1-0 victory over Liechtenstein in the Nations League on Thursday came two decades after San Marino — a country that is nestled inside central Italy with a population of about 33,000 — beat Liechtenstein by the same score in a friendly.

“We didn’t sleep last night. During the celebrations there were those who screamed and those who cried,” said Marco Tura, the former international referee who is the president of San Marino’s soccer federation.

San Marino had not won a single game in 141 previous competitive matches.

But the Titans are on a roll, having also scored in their three previous competitive games, narrow losses to Denmark (2-1), Kazakhstan (3-1) and Finland (2-1).

Tura attributes the improvement to the San Marino Academy, which has allowed players like Nicko Sensoli, who scored against Liechtenstein, to play at home instead of joining local Italian clubs.

“Two years ago we realized that we were losing a lot of kids between the ages of 19 and 22. So we created the an under-22 academy team. The academy’s youth team plays in the Italian leagues, while the first team plays in the San Marino league,” Tura said, according to the Italian soccer site gianlucadimarzio.com.

Located inland from the Italian city Rimini and perched atop a hill, San Marino is among the world’s oldest republics.

Sensoli scored by lifting the ball over Liechtenstein’s onrushing goalkeeper with the tip of his boot after a failed clearance.

San Marino now leads Group D1 of the Nations League after getting three points for the first time from a victory. Gibraltar, which hasn’t played yet, and Liechtenstein each have zero points.

And San Marino will chase more victories in its next two games against Gibraltar, followed by a visit to Liechtenstein in November. First, though, there’s a visit to Moldova on Tuesday for a friendly.

“We’re taking it day by day,” Tura said. “But I’m sure that it won’t be another 20 years before we win again.”

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The Associated Press