San Marino is one of the worst international soccer teams in the world. They have no hope of qualifying for a major tournament anytime soon, and they usually finish qualifying cycles with zero wins and zero draws. But on Tuesday, they had cause for celebration: they scored!
Credit: user edgiordano_5 on r/soccer
This is the first ever international goal for semi-professional forward Mattia Stefanelli, and his country is so, so happy.
WE FUCKING SCORED AN AWAY GOAL. STEFANELLI YOU FUCKING LEGEND!
— San Marino (@soccersanmarino) October 11, 2016
This is the first goal that San Marino has scored away from home in World Cup qualifying since 2001. But incredibly, this is their second away goal in a competitive game in the last two years, a pretty fantastic accomplishment by their standards. They scored against Lithuania in Euro 2016 qualifying.
San Marino didn't win. Norway came back from this and went on to defeat them comfortably. But for a team from a country with just 33,000 people, just scoring away from home is a huge accomplishment.