Benzema was through on goal in the last minute but decided to kick the ball aside for a goal kick.
Was a bit of a nail biter to be sure.
San Marino is eating well during these qualifiers.
Potentially the first time Wikipedia has been the link to a post on this sub?
Sad ngl, Gibraltar will now turn into a laughing stock
Yeah, I found myself strongly empathising with them. They knew they weren’t going to win, but they would have wanted to put in a performance. Tough night.
Also highlighted how important a good goalie is. This guy looks the part, looks just like Allison actually. But his reactions were poor, his positioning was poor and he just wasn’t athletic enough. I guess that’s what you get when your country’s population is only 30,000
I mean, the guy is is a glorified amateur, and his defenders were absolutely awful the entire game. He still made some nice saves against direct shots from world champions, so it’s not that bad of a performance.
Yeah and that since they’re actually improving, I mean they weren’t even in league D last nations league and their best club (Lincoln Red Imps) reached the conference league group stages 2 years ago. Plus they have a few bright talents coming up, one even makes appearances for the Man United U21’s at age 17 (James Scanlon) and they have a few in EFL academies too. And this national team is only 10 years old……
So it’s a shame that they’re now a laughing stock, and I hope this won’t discourage them to make these improvements. Last week their U21’s even nearly had a draw with The Netherlands, and they really did their best. I mean I don’t think I can defend to France as well with only 10 men……
And yeah, even though Coleing has had his good moments, he isn’t a top tier GK that a small nation can rely on. San Marino does have this with Benedettini (seriously, how did he never reach Serie A). But these guys are giving everything and they shouldn’t be a laughing stock for the internet, imagine how your Sunday league team would do against the 2018 world champions……