Thursday 5th September 2024 ko 20:45

UEFA Nations League League D Group 1

SAN MARINO 1 (Sensoli 53)

LIECHTENSTEIN 0

Att 914 at Stadio San Marino, Serravalle

Entry €12

Programme €2

Teamsheet FREE

The roots of Robyn and I being at a game involving Europe’s third smallest country lie in an unlikely place- Stockholm! You may remember our friends Per and Bettan; each year they like to have a week in Rimini so when we decided to have some time away during Robyn’s birthday week, we decided to follow their example!

For those in the know, Rimini is the gateway to the tiny country of San Marino so with us in the area it was straightforward to factor in a San Marino Nations League fixture. I’ll be completely candid at this point; I didn’t pay too much attention as to who they were playing!

I assumed that the result would be an away win, as since their first official FIFA sanctioned international in 1990 San Marino infamously had gone 205 international matches without winning a competitive game. But then Robyn pointed out that in fact San Marino had won one game, twenty years ago, and that was a friendly against Liechtenstein…. could this be the game where San Marino could break their competitive duck?

I used the quite wonderful series on YouTube by the Tim Traveller as a primer; and do watch his non-football material too. He covers travel and unusual places like no other, and one unintended consequence of this trip was finding just how many people I know watch his content.

He like most others heading for world’s oldest republic will take the coach for €6 one-way from Rimini station/stazione to San Marino Ex-Stazione (the Allies bombed the railway out of existance in 1944). There are two services, Bonelli for a services stopping at all the intermediate spots, including Serravalle for the football ground, and Benedettini for the direct service. I soon discovered that the two are run by the same firm, the tickets are interchangeable and yes, the name Benedettini does ring a bell.

My older reader may remember Sammarinese goalkeeper Pierluigi Benedettini who in 1993 not only drove the team coach to Wembley for San Marino’s game against England but played in goal too! The game is famous for San Marino scoring after only 8.3 seconds through Davide Gualtieri. The game did finish 7-1 to England but t-shirts with “Davide Gualtieri 8.3 seconds” were available at our game. Perhaps I should have bought one. And before you ask the coach company and the goalkeeper are from the same family. When your country has only 33,000 inhabitants maybe a little doubling up is inevitable!

Despite that familial football connection there is a real issue with that coach. The last bus from Ex-Stazione leaves at 19:45 and our game kicked off an hour later. We were looking at hiring a taxi back to Rimini for around €60 but help was at hand. We were introduced to Cristiano Ascari from the San Marino FA and other than being a lovely bloke, he offered us a lift back to Rimini after the game and supplied the relevant link to Vivaticket for match tickets. The site was also useful for our game at Rimini FC later that week.

But dear reader please don’t see San Marino just as an unsuccessful football team. Do as Robyn and I did and take the bus and Noddy train right up to the top of Monte Titano. The country was one of many tiny states in what is now Italy in medieval times and consisted of little more than the mountain, with the lower lying areas, including Serravalle joining in 1463. The reason why San Marino never joined Italy on that country’s formation in the 19th century was due to them having sheltered Guiseppe Garibaldi the father of modern Italy from Vatican persecution. When Italy was formed, Garibaldi allowed San Marino and ironically Vatican City to retain their independance, and become Europe’s third smallest and smallest countries, with Monaco between.

You’ll love visiting the 3 castles atop Monte Titano, another reason why noone has managed to invade the place and do stop for a Piadina on the way back down. And yes you can see the Stadio San Marino, as you can see!

But was time to catch the Bonelli service down to Serravalle, and we soon discovered that the closest bar and pizzeria to the stadium was also where most of the fans and press also congregated before games. Yes, that did include the Tim Traveller, and I was just about not star struck enough to get a photo with my favourite YouTuber.

But the enormity of the evening was dawning on us, even to the point that if we were to witness that historic first win would we be somehow cheating, as unlike Tim, we were watching a San Marino game for the first time? There was a need though to try and add some perspective to the game we were about to watch.

Firstly the format of UEFA’s Nations League is what made this interesting. For European and World Cup qualifying the groups are seeded to keep teams of similar strengths (or weakness) apart. The Nations League’s system of 4 tiers A,B,C, and D with promotion and relegation means San Marino are playing countries of similar strengths. The point was illustrated neatly wher you look at the relative populations of the two countries we’d be watching; San Marino is home to 33,000 with Liechtenstein 35,000.

Nevertherless there was no escaping the fact that San Marino were and are 210th and last in FIFA’s world rankings, and while they were playing a Liechtenstein team that were 9th last and hadn’t won in 4 years, the task of winning the game still looked monumental.

In the weeks before we flew out, the game started to catch the imaginations of people we encountered, even Perry the non-football fan who I give a lift to work to each day. I could see why, other than the sense of history the game posed questions like no other.

Imagine yourself as the manager, how do you motivate a team that never wins? I’ve seen no end of stunningly unsucessful club sides over the years, but none with a record of not having won in twenty years. But then how would you feel if you were the Liechtensteiner goalkeeper? It was the ultimate no-win situation for him, you would be a racing certainty to keep a clean sheet wouldn’t you? But what if you were the keeper that made the error that gave San Marino their first ever win?

I had some history in that regard. The visiting keeper was Benji Büchel latterly of Oxford United now of Vaduz, and still the only Liechtensteiner ever to play at Wembley. We surprised him on of all occasions, our honeymoon whilst taking in a game at Balzers. While the British trait of rooting for the underdog meant I wanted San Marino to win I saw what that could mean for someone who served my hometown club so well.

Security was tight at the ground, with retrospect, in the anticipation of it all, I should have expected my camera to be confiscated, as was Tim Traveller’s too. It was all professionally done, I was issued a receipt and was easily able to collect my property after the game. But after that it was easy enough to buy merchandise and collect a team sheet then finally meet Cristiano and explain that our gift of him of a tea caddy was being stored in with my camera for fear I imagine, that I might throw it!

The great beauty of the stadium is that above the scoreboard you can see Monte Titano that gives the team their nickname “Titani.” Moreover you can also see the three castles you see on San Marino’s flag. I found myself taking inspiration from it, and I wondered whether the Titani might too?

The game was initially as you’d expect, cagey with two sides low on confidence sizing each other up. The worry for many there was the nil-nil draw, in the sense that it offered little or nothing to anyone. Liechtenstein seemed better organised, but San Marino’s younger team were the more adventurous happy to play out from the back. But on 30 minutes disaster struck, or did it?

Fabio Luque Notaro’s goal for Liechtenstein would unquestionably have stood had VAR not been in force. a lengthy check revealed it was just the width of Ferhat Saglam’s foot that made all the difference both to the immediate scoreline, but with retrospect the whole course of the game. For as I’d feared it was an error that led to San Marino’s historic win.

Benvenuti’s ball into the Liechtenstein box was misdirected into real danger by Sandro Wieser. It was Niklas Beck’s ball to clear but he froze, Benji Büchel wasn’t quick enough off the mark so Nicko Sensoli was able to steal between the two of them to lob the ball into an empty net. Cue pandemonium in the stand, and Robyn and I looking at each other in disbelief!

With all that history noone could confidentally predict that San Marino could defend their slender lead. That fact that they did was due a slew of defensive substitutions with goalscorer Sensoli quickly sacrificed, but also due to Liechtenstein failing to put statistically the world’s worst national team under anywhere near enough pressure. That said, the collective intake of breath when the referee indicated 7 minutes of stoppages was a fair indicator of just how much tension everyone there was feeling. I’d go as far as to say I’ve never felt tension like it at any other game I’ve watched as a neutral. Even a goal kick was roundly cheered.

A final Liechtensteiner attack was repulsed, the ball was smashed forward, and referee Andris Treimanis blew full time and everyone bar the visiting team erupted in a joyous explosion that had been 34 years in the making. Cristiano met us, and confirmed that the Head of Football had been in tears, and that Robyn and I must now attend every single San Marino game.. forever! I wondered when I’ll be able to buy the Nicko Sensoli t-shirt!

As promised Cristiano dropped us off at our hotel back in Rimini, and thanks to him for helping us experience a life changing game. It was late, so the night porter let us in, and he genuinely couldn’t comprehend what we’d watched. We flopped out in our room, found San Marino TV and watched the game over again; there was far too much adrenaline present to think about sleep!

But the final word must go to the stadium announcer who celebrated until, quite literally he couldn’t breathe! Forza Titani; international football will never quite be the same for Robyn and I!