Race to the Bottom: The Battle for Worst Defense in Euro 2020 Qualifiers

Who will succeed San Marino? Opponent of the Red Devils four years ago, the third smallest state in Europe ended its qualifying campaign for Euro 2020 without a single point (0 out of 30) and with 51 goals conceded (only 1 scored). Even Gibraltar (0 out of 24) had done better by conceding “only” 31 goals, for three scored. Unsurprisingly, the last (207th) and 198th in the FIFA rankings are once again among the worst teams of this vintage.

Four nations are actually still in the running to obtain this inglorious title of worst team in the qualifiers: San Marino, Gibraltar, Cyprus and Liechtenstein. With only two games remaining (only 1 for Cyprus), all four have not taken any points in their respective groups and will, together, more than likely exceed the 100 goals conceded mark.

Gibraltar, worst defense and worst attack

But which one will be worse? The prize for worst defense currently goes to San Marino (26 goals), ahead of Cyprus (25), Liechtenstein (25) and Gibraltar (21). That’s 97 conceded for the quartet. Except that these figures are to be weighted in relation to the number of matches played. Result: Cyprus (3.57 goals conceded/match) and Gibraltar (3.5) do even worse than San Marino (3.25).

On the other hand, it was Liechtenstein which recorded the biggest defeat among these four nations: 0-7 against Iceland. Cyprus (6-0 in Spain) and San Marino (6-0 in Finland) narrowly escaped. The Gibraltar team fared better with a 5-0 in Greece, but the least populated country in the qualifiers (32,000 inhabitants) is on the other hand the only one not to have scored any goals. While Cyprus (2), San Marino (1) and Liechtenstein (1) have all already accomplished this mini-feat.

There are therefore only two games left for Gibraltar to avoid finishing these qualifiers with the worst record. And it promises to be quite complicated given the more than copious program: a trip to France on Saturday then a match against the Netherlands on Tuesday. Their objective will rather be to try to concede less than ten goals to do better than four years ago… For their part, Liechtenstein will face Portugal then Luxembourg, San Marino will go to Kazakhstan then welcome Finland, as Cyprus closes its qualifiers this Thursday against Spain. We must therefore also expect some avalanches of goals…

2023-11-15 16:29:00
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