Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a drill – the San Marino national team have scored a goal in a competitive game.
For the first time in two years the minnows, who are regularly beaten by at least four or more goals in qualifying, managed to find the back of the net after pouncing on a mistake at the back from opponents Poland.
The boyhood dream
They went into the fixture against the Poles knowing they’d probably suffer quite a heavy beating and in the end that’s what happened. Poland are considered to be England’s closest challengers in Group I for a reason and they wound up putting San Marino to the sword with a fairly dominant 7-1 away day display.
However, with the game over as a competitive contest at 4-0, a sloppy backpass allowed Nicola Nanni to race through on goal and slide the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
SAN MARINO HAVE SCORED!
— Football Tipster (@Footy_Tipster) September 5, 2021
Scenes we all LOVE to see @SanMarino_FA
https://t.co/z5WaorbZpS
While Nanni himself didn’t really seem to celebrate all that much, the rest of the first team swarmed over and had beaming smiles on their faces – giving us all a pretty good idea of just how much that moment means to them.
There are no illusions as to what they could do in the next few years but for the long term future of international football, it’s important to see smaller nations succeed in some way, shape or form.
Featured image credit: Getty
