San Marino has the smallest population of any UEFA country, the last estimate was 33,600.
The first official game played by a San Marino team was a 4–0 defeat in a European Championships qualifier by Switzerland in 1990.
San Marino play home matches at the San Marino Stadium, a stadium in Serravalle. It has a capacity of 7,000
Matteo Vitaioli is the most capped player with 77 caps since his debut in 1997. Andy Selva is the countries top scorer with 8 goals in 73 games. None of the current squad has more than 1 goal.
The longest serving coach is also the most successful one, Giampaolo Mazza managed 85 times winning 1 game, drawing 2 and losing 82 times
Records
World Cup
| Games | Wins | Draws | Defeats | For | Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 76 | 0 | 2 | 74 | 12 | 356 |
Euros
| Games | Wins | Draws | Defeats | For | Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 76 | 0 | 1 | 75 | 8 | 340 |
You can easily work out the average goals conceded – its about 4.68 per game in the World Cup and in the Euros about 4.47
These are the actual games that they have not lost in their competitive history.
World Cup qualification
San Marino 0–0 Turkey
World Cup qualification
Latvia 1–1 San Marino
Friendly
Liechtenstein 2–2 San Marino
Friendly
San Marino 1–0 Liechtenstein
Euro 2016 qualification
San Marino 0–0 Estonia
2020–21 UEFA Nations League D
Liechtenstein 0–0 San Marino
2020–21 UEFA Nations League D
San Marino 0–0 Gibraltar
Other Facts
San Marino held the record for the fastest goal in FIFA World Cup qualifying history for 22 years when they stunned England with a goal after only 8.3 seconds in 1993 before losing 7-1.
San Marino set a European record when they went over 20 games without scoring between October 2008 and August 2012
Their 13–0 defeat at home by Germany is a European Championship record
San Marino scored its first away goal in 14 years when Matteo Vitaioli scored against Lithuania in Euro 2016 qualification
They have regularly conceded 7, 8 , 9 and 10 goals in games.
Summary
They have been the worst team in Europe for a long time now, even Gibraltar who were recently admitted were better but with such a low population and potential pool of players its understandable. The player pool just isn’t there.
The nations league has made them more competitive, here are the last 3 results in the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League
Estonia 2–0 San Marino
San Marino 0–2 Malta
Malta 1–0 San Marino
Interestingly because of results in the previous one they were rated 54th out of 55. Andorra were rated worse mainly due to Andorra drawing 2 of 6 versus San Marino 2 from 4
This makes a strong argument that in World Cup and Euro qualifying the lower rated teams should play in a mini-league or groups. Similar things happen in Asia, Africa and Concacaf and maybe they would show some improvements playing against more equally matched teams.
What do they get out being hammered in the big games, even Fifa and Uefa do not count results against the bottom teams in the groups.
It has to be said they are in Europe so the standard of teams is way higher than Oceania and some of islands in Concacaf and maybe some of the lower Asian teams like Bhutan- perhaps if they were in those regions or played those teams they would win some games and be higher rated
