The definition of "meteoric rise" is going almost 35 years without a win in a competitive match, and then winning twice within the span of less than 3 months to finish top of your group in a continental competition...
Damn, San Marino is gonna get tired of all this winning This is why I love football. A bunch of random dons gather around to support a tiny nation that none of them have any relation to only because we want to see them win
According to sky sports, its possible than san marino is two matches away from wc qualification The best few teams who top their NL group get playoff places, but if enough of those teams qualify automatically, then lower placed group winners get those playoff spots
For context, there were a total of 14 Nations League groups. 14 groups, 14 group winners. Each of these 14 group winners are now ranked, by how well they did: - 1 = Spain - 2 = Germany - 3 = Portugal - 4 = France - 5 = England - 6 = Norway - 7 = Wales - 8 = Czechia - 9 = Romania - 10 = Sweden - 11 = North Macedonia - 12 = Northern Ireland - 13 = Moldova - 14 = San Marino Next year there's the WC qualifiers, and there will be 12 qualifying groups. The 12 qualifying group winners will automatically qualify for the World Cup, and the 12 teams that finish 2nd will qualify for the playoffs. But that only covers 12 teams in the playoffs. There will be 16 teams in the playoffs. The last 4 spots are decided by the Nations League. The top 4 group winners not yet qualified for either the World Cup or the playoffs, will also be in the playoffs. TL;DR - If at least 10 of the 13 teams listed above finish in the top 2 of their respective qualifying groups, which is actually realistic, San Marino is in the playoffs
They've managed to secure a playoff spot for the World Cup. Depending on how other nations who topped their Nations League finishing in the top 2 of their 4/5 team group, there're 2 games away from the World Cup
Shoutout to the Liechtenstein striker who wanted to smash the ball into the back of the net in the celebration for their goal but succeeded in booting it into the stratosphere instead
For those interested, it's a 7 hour drive between San Marino and Liechtenstein so Zealand is probably correct in that bus would be the optimal mode of transport
Yeqh the connection is not optimal If you were to use public transport, you would probably take the bus from Vaduz to Sargans (30min), the train from Sargans to Zürich (1h15min), the train from Zürich to milan (3.5h) and the train from Milan to Rimini (2.5h) So even if wait times did magically not exist the bus is faster And yes I went into the rabbit hole of looking up the times
Liechtenstein had a pretty good generation 10-20 years ago. Their qualifying campaign for 2006 WC was particularly respectable, they beat Luxembourg twice, drew Portugal and Slovakia, and lost most of their other matches by 1 goal.
The big thing about the Nations League for these tiny nations is that it gives them the opportunity to actually play each other REGULARLY! In World Cup and Euros qualification they tend to end up in separate groups facing much stronger teams and never getting the chance to compete against teams on their own level. Friendlies against Carribbean, African, Asian, and South Pacific nations were and still are few and far between because of the cost for both sides.
Hey Zealand, I am from Liechtenstein and the reason Liechtenstein does not Improve much is that we do not support Youth Talent alot. pretty much every young player plays in a club that cannot finance them to a point where they are a full time pro. most of the National players have side jobs. FC Vaduz is the biggest club and yet does not really bring up young players if they do they sit on the bank for ages. and even when there are player that have potential they dont get the spotlight they need. a Good example would be Sandro Wieser, was a high quality talent with lots of potential but did a wrong career move into not finding his form and then his career went more down hill. other example would be the Legends Peter Jehle and Franz Burgmeier. both were absolute machines but they never really made it onto the big stage. Peter Jehle was such a insane talent we had that declined a offer as a teenager from Bundesliga clubs to finish his apprenticeship. The football is evolving slowly with young players playing more for the National team but they just arent great yet. Structure wise there is now improvements with a youthcenter beeing built but it will take another 5-10 years for our country to start beating better teams again. If you are interested in more indeepth talk about Liechtenstein and its clubs id love to speak much love
In Denmarks defense we are world champions at playing at our opponents level in every match. Which is good against big nations but looks silly when we face San Marino xD
@@isaacjones5687 With Bellamy that may be changing, thank goodness! I was tired of feeling like we lost the spark even though I know the players have it in them.
RE: Nations League Format The first season was the best edition in terms of format as you had groups of three so all very do-or-die, Germany even got relegated! But then it was all reformatted to take away that sense of jeopardy from the higher groups. BUT! This, San Marino’s promotion, is unbelievably amazing and a true gem for true fans of the sport that can truly appreciate what this means for football and for those from San Marino.🇸🇲!!
I never understood the argument that the Nations League adds to fixture congestion. Without this tournament, they would still play friendlies. No new matches have been added. All the problems of fixture congestion come from the club competitions (and maybe World Cup/Euros expansion) The Nations League has always been an awesome idea for me, because I love seeing these small teams do well. It highlights when they are doing things right or having a golden generation even if they still can't beat the best teams in Europe
All the problems of fixture congestion come from the club competitions (and maybe World Cup/Euros expansion) Zealand is not always the best thinker in the world
I understand the logic, even if it's debatable how accurate it is. For competitive matches (like the Nations League) NTs are going to call up most of their best talent. Sometimes for friendlies NTs will opt to rest some of their regulars to give the manager a chance to get a look at some other talent they've had their eye on.
@@loonyloser1733 I read the "friendlies were better for rotating and giving talents a chance" argument alot, but it just doesnt really hold water. Nations League for big nations is low stakes enough to do rotations. Yesterday in Germany vs. Hungary Germany rotated NINE players into the starting eleven, the game was sloppy as a result but they wanted to see who could prove themselves to be s11 worthy. England had several new faces make their National Team debut (many coming from Carsleys U21 Team) during this Nations League year, and even had some of them score.
The only reason there are more games than let's say 40 years ago is because the top leagues have like 7 teams guaranteed to play 8 games in Europe. For decades everyone went into a straight knockout and if the 1st round had Rarca v Bayern and idk Levadia Tallin v Maribor or something, no one gave a crap about it, no one said it's wrong. Barca and Bayern had bad luck, one of them lost, and that was their European journey for the season. Nobody had a problem with that for 40 years, and sometimes teams from other countries than the top 4 even won something. When the money involved got more and more every year, big teams and uefa thought that they can't have big teams with lots of fans go out early and some team like Göteborg, Zvezda, Steaua, Anderlecht etc. win European trophies once a decade. So they changed it, and now they have to live with more games. I'll certainly never feel sorry for any of them. . . Edit: one more thing about fixture congestion: I read a comment by someone saying that there are too many different entities organizing games. They gave Enzo Fernandez as an example, in one year from summer 2024 to summer 2025, he will play in games organized by: A, the Premier League, competition: Premier League (duh) B, The FA, competition: FA Cup C, The EFL, competition: League Cup D, UEFA, competition: Conference League E, CONMEBOL, competition: Copa America F, FIFA, competition: Club World Cup (I don't know whether the WC qualifiers are organized by FIFA or CONMEBOL but either way they both got onto this list with other competitions) and G,H,IJ, etc., Chelsea and all other clubs who organize frendlies, often halfway across the world. And when someone says that they play too many games, all those 8+ entities can point fingers to all the others, and they will, because whoever organizes the games gets the money. And none of them will just give up on the money in favour of all the others. That's how this "too many games" thing happened to begin with.
Liechtenstein is a very small country with a very small population, they usually are country that losses like 0-6 to countries like Sweden, Ukraine, Norway, Denmark and Bulgaria
Czechia have just beaten Georgia to win their group. This means that 10 of the 14 nations league group winners will be in either pot 1 or 2 for the World Cup qualifiers. Funnily enough, if 10 or more nations league group winners finish in the top 2 of their world cup qualifier groups, San Marino will have a playoff place. With each playoff match being over a single leg, that means San Marino have a strong chance of being only 2 games away from the 2026 world cup Edit: Looking further at what the playoffs could be, I think only 1 nations league side would be in each path, meaning that San Marino would have to beat 2 group runners up (although potentially, another nations league slot could be in the other semi final bracket). I wouldn't put it past a team like Northern Ireland to win a playoff semi final against the likes of Ukraine or Turkey to then lose against San Marino in the final. We know from recent games that San Marino can keep it close against the likes of Denmark, Finland and Slovenia, sides who could very well be in the playoffs as a second place side. It will take a miracle but if they can make the playoffs based on the other teams qualifying, them qualifying for the World Cup is not a 0% chance (maybe 0.0001%, but there's always a chance)
to be fair, in league A, a couple of days ago Italy and France were playing to win their group and it was a terrific match that felt really competitive.
Did u no see Scotland group Scotland could of finish 2nd who were 4 place before Poland game Poland were 3rd somehow couldn’t finish 2nd but Scotland could which brought some fun to that group
Well it took my team Boldmere St Michael's based in Birmingham England until it's 150th season to legitimately gain it's first ever promotion beating Chalfont St Peters away 4-0 in an inter step promotion relegation play off in season 2021-22 having finished runners up in the Midland Football League Premier Division Regular Season so I perfectly understand how happy San Marino are.
San Marino is special in the case that they allow only people born in San Marino to play in their team, and doesn't accept, for example, naturalised Italians into their team, even tho they definitely could
They would have to win two matches against a team at the level of a Nations League B team. It wouldn't happen. They have a chance of being in the play-offs though which would be historic.
I'm italian and this summer me and a friend where on holiday and we went to visit the "old town" in San Marino for one day. While we were there we bought the official San Marino jersey. It was the best decision of the year 😍
San Marino getting Ws and topping the group is the best thing to happen in the football world. Now we need the flood gates to open and see them in the World Cup.
Nope. Still last. There are sites that track the points live so you’ll know where teams will be when it comes out. San Marino was so many points behind that they still haven’t caught the next team. Plus you don’t get many points for beating Liechtenstein cuz they are also low ranked.
@Collinscody01 You also need to take into account that an important factor is the size of the victory, so you get more points for winning 4-2 than for winning 2-1, so scoring many goals definitely helps
@@dakzibbon6589nope. Winning 100-0 and winning 1-0 make no difference. All the FIFA rankings formula takes into account is level of importance of the match (IE World Cup match is worth more than a friendly) and the difference in ranking points between you and your opponent
side note the nations league group with romania cyprus lithuania kosovo is unbelievably satisfying, every team beat every team below them and lost to every team above them assuming romania beat kosovo
Its such a great story. I have a San Marino shirt i got when I went there for a day trip a few years ago when I was in Italy. Years of doing the San Marino challenge on football manager i almost feel like its my achievement haha. But seriously its a great story and well done to them and hope they enjoy the C league and can maybe pick up a shock result.
I would love to see what the atmosphere was like among the players afterwards it must have felt incredible. I think I would almost feel better being a part of this than winning a competition with an already good team
I've actually been to San Marino. I was in Italy attending a few football trials, and I went to San Marino to visit for 5 days. I played some local pick up and it was great.
A team from a country that's got half the population of my town will be playing countries of significant size next year. That's just incredible, and while I'm sure they'll probably get hammered, it's going to be an amazing chance for them to see just how far they've come. Forza La Serenissima!
As a Scottish football fan the nations league has given us new hope for football, yes some of the teams at the top don’t care as much but gone are the days being forced to play friendlies against teams that don’t really care if they even win or lose that doesn’t prepare us for wc qualifiers instead we play against Portugal, Croatia and Poland and do mighty well too, the nations league has almost single handedly breed life back into a Scotland squad that didn’t qualify for a major tournament in multiple decades.
I didn't get to see it, but from what I've heard San Marino had looked like the better side for a good portion of that match a few days earlier against Gibraltar as well when a win for either side would have secured promotion. So the signs were definitely there that this was possible. Sort of like Leicester's miracle survival the season before they won the EPL as 5000-1 shots. It's been pointed out that it's not inconceivable that by winning their Nations League group that San Marino could play in the World Cup playoff, though they likely would get destroyed in that playoff if they got there. Also I have to laugh at how well the video aged. Ukraine not only avoided relegation from Nations League B, they're in a playoff to go up to Nations League A.
This was also the 3rd time ever San Marino scored multiple goals in a single match. 2-2 draw in Liechtenstein in 2003 and a 2-3 loss at home against Malta in 2012. Both of those were friendlies
The miracle on grass name has already been taken and it was the Brisbane Lions comin back from 53 points down agianst geelong in one quarter in the AFL. Get your own name
Teams in League C for 2026-2027 include: Estonia, Cyprus, Albania, Finland, Kazakhstan, Montenegro, Belarus, Faroe Islands, San Marino, Moldova. Gibraltar, Malta, Latvia, Luxembourg are in the playoffs between League C and D Georgia, Ireland, Slovenia, Iceland, Slovakia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, and Armenia are in the playoffs between League B and C.
I've been following San Marino for the last 15 years and every time they played W.C or Euro qualifying games against the other lowest ranked team in their group (like Malta or Andorra), I'd always expect them to be able to at least get a draw, but they'd only do this in friendlies. I'm amazed that it took them 4 attempts in the nation league to start winning, as they got 2 draws in 2022 against listanstien and Gibraltar in back to back matches.
It's why the Nations League was needed so badly, so the small teams can play each other and can win, bring in more fans and attention in competitive games rather than just friendlies, give their players a sense of accomplishment and pride. I don't care what happens in Groups A and B, the best stories come from the lower tiers.
12:15 - Honestly, as a Portuguese, couldn't agree more. Couldn't be asked to watch much of Portugal's games in this competition, honestly don't actually give a fuck, but i was heavily accompanying both San Marino games against Gibraltar and Liechtenstein. Honestly i really hope they can do a major madness in the playoffs and qualify for the WC2026. (although I know it's a .00001% chance)
San Marino avoiding the drop in League C would be historical !! Hoping this will develop San marinese football and its UEFA clubs rank in the long run 👏
This is proof that any ‘small nation’ has a chance to win at a competitive level if you give them a chance! Let’s have a small/low ranked nations World Cup!
If anyone has seen Next Goal Wins, the movie about American Samoa’s National Team when they were the worst. There should totally be a movie about San Marino.
Love it San Marino is Norways biggest ever win Nations League give these teams a chance. But for the top teams it just adds to the allready to full game schedule. So Drop the top tiers of nations league in Europe it has no purpose. The teams winning already qualify for euros and WC anyway
I do like this about the nations league. The small countries playing each other. Ideally in the future it is pre qualifying for world cup qualifying and be done with the nations league.
because lithuania came last in their nations league group they might get relegated to group D. san marino has been promoted to group C. lithuania could be worse than san marino :O
The new age of Sammarinese football has started
San Marine?
I didn't know poseidon had a football team
Not to be that guy but it's Sammarinese
@@79Cents thanks for letting me know
@@79Centsthanks for letting me know
@@79Cents thanks for telling me!
Cant believe we get to live under this beautiful golden generation 😢
The definition of "meteoric rise" is going almost 35 years without a win in a competitive match, and then winning twice within the span of less than 3 months to finish top of your group in a continental competition...
And scoring more than 1 goal in a match for points for the first time ever
@@crepeland the first win away from home.
San Marino have more Wins in the last 5 games than Man City 😮😮 /s
Damn, San Marino is gonna get tired of all this winning
This is why I love football. A bunch of random dons gather around to support a tiny nation that none of them have any relation to only because we want to see them win
A bunch of random WHATS
We’re sammarinese by faith not blood. Nothing can cut that bond! 💙🤍
No Mr. Berardi, I can't take all this winning!
San Marino wins in the last 4 games - 1
Man City wins in the last 4 games - 0
San Marino > Man City
@shr-p6c after beating Liechtenstein in September, San Marino lost 3 games and drew a game so saying 1 win in last 4 is correct
All hail San Marino 🇸🇲
@@shr-p6c The first win was more than 4 games ago
2 wins in last 4 games
@@nathanb286 oops sry it was 1 in 4. I didn't count friendlies in between.
According to sky sports, its possible than san marino is two matches away from wc qualification
The best few teams who top their NL group get playoff places, but if enough of those teams qualify automatically, then lower placed group winners get those playoff spots
You kinda true it everyone who finish 1st at any league in nation league get playoff that how Scotland got to euro 2021
@@Blockhead-lc6fr that's how Wales qualified for the last world cup
For context, there were a total of 14 Nations League groups. 14 groups, 14 group winners. Each of these 14 group winners are now ranked, by how well they did:
- 1 = Spain
- 2 = Germany
- 3 = Portugal
- 4 = France
- 5 = England
- 6 = Norway
- 7 = Wales
- 8 = Czechia
- 9 = Romania
- 10 = Sweden
- 11 = North Macedonia
- 12 = Northern Ireland
- 13 = Moldova
- 14 = San Marino
Next year there's the WC qualifiers, and there will be 12 qualifying groups. The 12 qualifying group winners will automatically qualify for the World Cup, and the 12 teams that finish 2nd will qualify for the playoffs.
But that only covers 12 teams in the playoffs. There will be 16 teams in the playoffs. The last 4 spots are decided by the Nations League. The top 4 group winners not yet qualified for either the World Cup or the playoffs, will also be in the playoffs.
TL;DR - If at least 10 of the 13 teams listed above finish in the top 2 of their respective qualifying groups, which is actually realistic, San Marino is in the playoffs
They've managed to secure a playoff spot for the World Cup. Depending on how other nations who topped their Nations League finishing in the top 2 of their 4/5 team group, there're 2 games away from the World Cup
That would be bigger than Greece winning Euro 2004
They are possibly two games away from qualifying for USA Mexico and Canada WC
@@renerphoIkr
@@bpbill2000I know
The dream is alive
Shoutout to the Liechtenstein striker who wanted to smash the ball into the back of the net in the celebration for their goal but succeeded in booting it into the stratosphere instead
For those interested, it's a 7 hour drive between San Marino and Liechtenstein so Zealand is probably correct in that bus would be the optimal mode of transport
Yeqh the connection is not optimal
If you were to use public transport, you would probably take the bus from Vaduz to Sargans (30min), the train from Sargans to Zürich (1h15min), the train from Zürich to milan (3.5h) and the train from Milan to Rimini (2.5h)
So even if wait times did magically not exist the bus is faster
And yes I went into the rabbit hole of looking up the times
Liechtenstein had a pretty good generation 10-20 years ago. Their qualifying campaign for 2006 WC was particularly respectable, they beat Luxembourg twice, drew Portugal and Slovakia, and lost most of their other matches by 1 goal.
The big thing about the Nations League for these tiny nations is that it gives them the opportunity to actually play each other REGULARLY!
In World Cup and Euros qualification they tend to end up in separate groups facing much stronger teams and never getting the chance to compete against teams on their own level.
Friendlies against Carribbean, African, Asian, and South Pacific nations were and still are few and far between because of the cost for both sides.
Hey Zealand, I am from Liechtenstein and the reason Liechtenstein does not Improve much is that we do not support Youth Talent alot. pretty much every young player plays in a club that cannot finance them to a point where they are a full time pro. most of the National players have side jobs. FC Vaduz is the biggest club and yet does not really bring up young players if they do they sit on the bank for ages. and even when there are player that have potential they dont get the spotlight they need. a Good example would be Sandro Wieser, was a high quality talent with lots of potential but did a wrong career move into not finding his form and then his career went more down hill. other example would be the Legends Peter Jehle and Franz Burgmeier. both were absolute machines but they never really made it onto the big stage. Peter Jehle was such a insane talent we had that declined a offer as a teenager from Bundesliga clubs to finish his apprenticeship.
The football is evolving slowly with young players playing more for the National team but they just arent great yet. Structure wise there is now improvements with a youthcenter beeing built but it will take another 5-10 years for our country to start beating better teams again.
If you are interested in more indeepth talk about Liechtenstein and its clubs id love to speak
much love
the san marino redemption arc
Also.israle won agisnt belgiuem and draw against France which has real amdeid striker and barcolna cd
from wat exactly?
@@nanookrubsit I believe "the worst team in the world," a bit of redemption but good stuff nonetheless.
San Marino really said “okay, I understand it now…”
"San Marino really said "okay, I understand it now…" 💀 💀 " ahh comment
This isnt tiktok mate
In Denmarks defense we are world champions at playing at our opponents level in every match. Which is good against big nations but looks silly when we face San Marino xD
Same for us. We can go toe to toe with the Netherlands and Belgium but we couldn’t beat Gibraltar
Ah yes, the "France" approach : in the span of 3 weeks, losing to Tunisia and still getting to the World Cup final
@@raphlas8635 Tunisia catching strays rn
@@isaacjones5687 spain seems like the toughest team to beat after winning every single game in the euros
@@isaacjones5687 With Bellamy that may be changing, thank goodness! I was tired of feeling like we lost the spark even though I know the players have it in them.
RE: Nations League Format
The first season was the best edition in terms of format as you had groups of three so all very do-or-die, Germany even got relegated! But then it was all reformatted to take away that sense of jeopardy from the higher groups.
BUT! This, San Marino’s promotion, is unbelievably amazing and a true gem for true fans of the sport that can truly appreciate what this means for football and for those from San Marino.🇸🇲!!
Come on Netflix we need a serie like Sunderland until I die but with San Marino national team.
San Marino are now 2 wins away from the World Cup :D:D:D
I never understood the argument that the Nations League adds to fixture congestion. Without this tournament, they would still play friendlies. No new matches have been added. All the problems of fixture congestion come from the club competitions (and maybe World Cup/Euros expansion)
The Nations League has always been an awesome idea for me, because I love seeing these small teams do well. It highlights when they are doing things right or having a golden generation even if they still can't beat the best teams in Europe
All the problems of fixture congestion come from the club competitions (and maybe World Cup/Euros expansion)
Zealand is not always the best thinker in the world
I understand the logic, even if it's debatable how accurate it is. For competitive matches (like the Nations League) NTs are going to call up most of their best talent. Sometimes for friendlies NTs will opt to rest some of their regulars to give the manager a chance to get a look at some other talent they've had their eye on.
@@loonyloser1733 I read the "friendlies were better for rotating and giving talents a chance" argument alot, but it just doesnt really hold water. Nations League for big nations is low stakes enough to do rotations. Yesterday in Germany vs. Hungary Germany rotated NINE players into the starting eleven, the game was sloppy as a result but they wanted to see who could prove themselves to be s11 worthy. England had several new faces make their National Team debut (many coming from Carsleys U21 Team) during this Nations League year, and even had some of them score.
The only reason there are more games than let's say 40 years ago is because the top leagues have like 7 teams guaranteed to play 8 games in Europe. For decades everyone went into a straight knockout and if the 1st round had Rarca v Bayern and idk Levadia Tallin v Maribor or something, no one gave a crap about it, no one said it's wrong. Barca and Bayern had bad luck, one of them lost, and that was their European journey for the season. Nobody had a problem with that for 40 years, and sometimes teams from other countries than the top 4 even won something. When the money involved got more and more every year, big teams and uefa thought that they can't have big teams with lots of fans go out early and some team like Göteborg, Zvezda, Steaua, Anderlecht etc. win European trophies once a decade. So they changed it, and now they have to live with more games. I'll certainly never feel sorry for any of them.
.
.
Edit: one more thing about fixture congestion: I read a comment by someone saying that there are too many different entities organizing games. They gave Enzo Fernandez as an example, in one year from summer 2024 to summer 2025, he will play in games organized by:
A, the Premier League, competition: Premier League (duh)
B, The FA, competition: FA Cup
C, The EFL, competition: League Cup
D, UEFA, competition: Conference League
E, CONMEBOL, competition: Copa America
F, FIFA, competition: Club World Cup
(I don't know whether the WC qualifiers are organized by FIFA or CONMEBOL but either way they both got onto this list with other competitions)
and G,H,IJ, etc., Chelsea and all other clubs who organize frendlies, often halfway across the world.
And when someone says that they play too many games, all those 8+ entities can point fingers to all the others, and they will, because whoever organizes the games gets the money. And none of them will just give up on the money in favour of all the others. That's how this "too many games" thing happened to begin with.
"Who do you play for?"
"I PLAY FOR SAN MARINO!"
I read on BBC Sport earlier that San Marino can still qualify for the 2026 World Cup UEFA playoffs based on winning their group. 🇸🇲
"MIRACLE ON GRASS" HOLY AS A HOCKEY FAN THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING I'VE ENCOUNTERED TODAY
Miracle on grass would be Greece winning the Euros in 2004 though
AFL reference
@@pangopango3939 olympics reference actually
THERE we go. Forza Titani!
Someone needs to found a St. Pierre & Miquelon team and enter it in the CONCACAF nations league
They’ve never lost a game by less than 7 goals
THE MOMENT YOUVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!
Ohh yess san Marino ohh yess
Nothing can make the whole world happy quite like this epic San Marino promotion story.
Liechtenstein is a very small country with a very small population, they usually are country that losses like 0-6 to countries like Sweden, Ukraine, Norway, Denmark and Bulgaria
Czechia have just beaten Georgia to win their group. This means that 10 of the 14 nations league group winners will be in either pot 1 or 2 for the World Cup qualifiers. Funnily enough, if 10 or more nations league group winners finish in the top 2 of their world cup qualifier groups, San Marino will have a playoff place. With each playoff match being over a single leg, that means San Marino have a strong chance of being only 2 games away from the 2026 world cup
Edit: Looking further at what the playoffs could be, I think only 1 nations league side would be in each path, meaning that San Marino would have to beat 2 group runners up (although potentially, another nations league slot could be in the other semi final bracket). I wouldn't put it past a team like Northern Ireland to win a playoff semi final against the likes of Ukraine or Turkey to then lose against San Marino in the final. We know from recent games that San Marino can keep it close against the likes of Denmark, Finland and Slovenia, sides who could very well be in the playoffs as a second place side. It will take a miracle but if they can make the playoffs based on the other teams qualifying, them qualifying for the World Cup is not a 0% chance (maybe 0.0001%, but there's always a chance)
to be fair, in league A, a couple of days ago Italy and France were playing to win their group and it was a terrific match that felt really competitive.
Did u no see Scotland group Scotland could of finish 2nd who were 4 place before Poland game Poland were 3rd somehow couldn’t finish 2nd but Scotland could which brought some fun to that group
WATCHING THE MIRACLE ON GRASS WHILE SMOKING GRASS OHHHH
At first, I thought it took you some time to make this video, but this is literally History in the making, so that's understandable.
Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino´s country of origin. 😋
Dan Vs Kelly back in the day was amazing
Well it took my team Boldmere St Michael's based in Birmingham England until it's 150th season to legitimately gain it's first ever promotion beating Chalfont St Peters away 4-0 in an inter step promotion relegation play off in season 2021-22 having finished runners up in the Midland Football League Premier Division Regular Season so I perfectly understand how happy San Marino are.
San Marino about to get a lot of FM players applying for visas
San Marino is special in the case that they allow only people born in San Marino to play in their team, and doesn't accept, for example, naturalised Italians into their team, even tho they definitely could
😮😮😮😮😮😮
DID I JUST HEAR ZEALAND SWEAR!!!!
4 YEARS IVE BEEN WAITING 😅
This San Marino with Andy Selva would have a shot at 2026 WC
They would have to win two matches against a team at the level of a Nations League B team. It wouldn't happen. They have a chance of being in the play-offs though which would be historic.
I'm italian and this summer me and a friend where on holiday and we went to visit the "old town" in San Marino for one day.
While we were there we bought the official San Marino jersey.
It was the best decision of the year 😍
2:06 Zealand mentioning my country brings me immense joy
Sons and daughters of Saint Lucia!!!
San marino winning games before gta 6
😂
They should run the nations league with teams that dont make it to the world cup/euro. Swap them out every 2 years from the not qualified.
A fun fact about Gibraltar is that they don't play their home matches in Gibraltar, they play them in Algarve Stadium in Portugal. 6:58
I know they play home games in Portugal, cause I've been to see them there, but they did play these games there in Gibraltar
What a wonderful time to be alive 🇸🇲🇸🇲🇸🇲
San Marino getting Ws and topping the group is the best thing to happen in the football world.
Now we need the flood gates to open and see them in the World Cup.
We are witnessing the Golden Age of San Marino at this very moment.
I can't wait to see how many places they jump up in the Fifa rankings because of this, should be in the top 200 thanks to this International window
Nope. Still last. There are sites that track the points live so you’ll know where teams will be when it comes out. San Marino was so many points behind that they still haven’t caught the next team. Plus you don’t get many points for beating Liechtenstein cuz they are also low ranked.
@Collinscody01
You also need to take into account that an important factor is the size of the victory, so you get more points for winning 4-2 than for winning 2-1, so scoring many goals definitely helps
@@dakzibbon6589nope. Winning 100-0 and winning 1-0 make no difference. All the FIFA rankings formula takes into account is level of importance of the match (IE World Cup match is worth more than a friendly) and the difference in ranking points between you and your opponent
The microstate super league is by far the best thing to come out of the nations league
side note the nations league group with romania cyprus lithuania kosovo is unbelievably satisfying, every team beat every team below them and lost to every team above them assuming romania beat kosovo
Its such a great story. I have a San Marino shirt i got when I went there for a day trip a few years ago when I was in Italy. Years of doing the San Marino challenge on football manager i almost feel like its my achievement haha. But seriously its a great story and well done to them and hope they enjoy the C league and can maybe pick up a shock result.
FORZA TITANI!!! 🇸🇲 🤍 💙
I actually got slightly emotional when they won that first match this year and now I hear of this win, amazing
I would love to see what the atmosphere was like among the players afterwards it must have felt incredible. I think I would almost feel better being a part of this than winning a competition with an already good team
San Marino last 4 competitive matches: 2 Wins 1 Draw 1 Loss
Man City last 4 competitive matches: 0 Wins 0 Draws 4 Losses
I've actually been to San Marino. I was in Italy attending a few football trials, and I went to San Marino to visit for 5 days. I played some local pick up and it was great.
A team from a country that's got half the population of my town will be playing countries of significant size next year. That's just incredible, and while I'm sure they'll probably get hammered, it's going to be an amazing chance for them to see just how far they've come. Forza La Serenissima!
WE DID IT! WE MAY NOT BE SAMMARINESE BY BLOOD. BUT WE ARE SAMMARINESE BY FAITH
San Marino omg let’s fricking gooo. the most heart warming team in the world 🇸🇲🇸🇲🇸🇲
Since it happened i was waiting for this video
As a Scottish football fan the nations league has given us new hope for football, yes some of the teams at the top don’t care as much but gone are the days being forced to play friendlies against teams that don’t really care if they even win or lose that doesn’t prepare us for wc qualifiers instead we play against Portugal, Croatia and Poland and do mighty well too, the nations league has almost single handedly breed life back into a Scotland squad that didn’t qualify for a major tournament in multiple decades.
I didn't get to see it, but from what I've heard San Marino had looked like the better side for a good portion of that match a few days earlier against Gibraltar as well when a win for either side would have secured promotion. So the signs were definitely there that this was possible. Sort of like Leicester's miracle survival the season before they won the EPL as 5000-1 shots. It's been pointed out that it's not inconceivable that by winning their Nations League group that San Marino could play in the World Cup playoff, though they likely would get destroyed in that playoff if they got there.
Also I have to laugh at how well the video aged. Ukraine not only avoided relegation from Nations League B, they're in a playoff to go up to Nations League A.
Today, I feel San Marino.
I love, that you love football this much.
Went to San Marino, this summer, had to get the kit and was wearing it this week after they won
This was also the 3rd time ever San Marino scored multiple goals in a single match. 2-2 draw in Liechtenstein in 2003 and a 2-3 loss at home against Malta in 2012. Both of those were friendlies
The world isn’t ready for the San Marino golden generation
you say san marino is the worst team in football history, but they're just one typo away from also having won 0 superbowls
The miracle on grass name has already been taken and it was the Brisbane Lions comin back from 53 points down agianst geelong in one quarter in the AFL. Get your own name
Came here to say this! 🦁🦁🦁
Teams in League C for 2026-2027 include: Estonia, Cyprus, Albania, Finland, Kazakhstan, Montenegro, Belarus, Faroe Islands, San Marino, Moldova.
Gibraltar, Malta, Latvia, Luxembourg are in the playoffs between League C and D
Georgia, Ireland, Slovenia, Iceland, Slovakia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, and Armenia are in the playoffs between League B and C.
i am now a san marino fan forever
WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE
San Marino bullying the league
I am here for it😂
zealand’s forehead is bigger than san marino
I live 2 hours from San Marino and went there for my birthday a year ago, lovely place.
I've seen enough. Give us Argentina
I've been following San Marino for the last 15 years and every time they played W.C or Euro qualifying games against the other lowest ranked team in their group (like Malta or Andorra), I'd always expect them to be able to at least get a draw, but they'd only do this in friendlies. I'm amazed that it took them 4 attempts in the nation league to start winning, as they got 2 draws in 2022 against listanstien and Gibraltar in back to back matches.
Born late to explore the world born just right to see san marino get number 1 in their league.
have you ever seen the documentary "The Other Final"? If not do check it out, think it would be right up your street.
THE SAN MARINESE GOLDEN GENERATION!
It's why the Nations League was needed so badly, so the small teams can play each other and can win, bring in more fans and attention in competitive games rather than just friendlies, give their players a sense of accomplishment and pride. I don't care what happens in Groups A and B, the best stories come from the lower tiers.
Excuse me the miracle on grass is when the Brisbane lions came back to beat the Geelong cats from a goal after the siren.
after i saw the title i clicked the vid looking for this comment about our beloved irrelevant sport
@@ededwinson5774it's official San Marino has more supporters than the lions now 🥲.
12:15 - Honestly, as a Portuguese, couldn't agree more. Couldn't be asked to watch much of Portugal's games in this competition, honestly don't actually give a fuck, but i was heavily accompanying both San Marino games against Gibraltar and Liechtenstein.
Honestly i really hope they can do a major madness in the playoffs and qualify for the WC2026. (although I know it's a .00001% chance)
I was so waiting for this video 😄
Been following that Gibraltar team, my lord what a fumble!
San Marino avoiding the drop in League C would be historical !! Hoping this will develop San marinese football and its UEFA clubs rank in the long run 👏
While the Nations League kinda sucks for the top nations, it is so good for the weaker nations.
Kinda sucks for Liechtenstein now though, imagine your team is now best-known for being "San Marino's b*tch"...
At least top nations have a shot of silverware.
Why does it suck for the top nations? Many of them will end up in the finals where they have a chance of winning a major tournament.
Did Zealand just drop an AFL reference?
"miracle on grass" ASH MCGRATH!!
This is proof that any ‘small nation’ has a chance to win at a competitive level if you give them a chance!
Let’s have a small/low ranked nations World Cup!
If anyone has seen Next Goal Wins, the movie about American Samoa’s National Team when they were the worst. There should totally be a movie about San Marino.
Andorra is to San Marino as the USA is to Canada
Weve all been hearing about how we live in a sinulation for awhile now, I just never expected it to be an FM simulation.
I was waiting for this Upload 💎💎🔥🔥
Love it San Marino is Norways biggest ever win Nations League give these teams a chance. But for the top teams it just adds to the allready to full game schedule. So Drop the top tiers of nations league in Europe it has no purpose. The teams winning already qualify for euros and WC anyway
I do like this about the nations league. The small countries playing each other. Ideally in the future it is pre qualifying for world cup qualifying and be done with the nations league.
san marino dominance could bore fans - pep guardiola
Watched the game live, sensational scenes every time they scored
🇸🇲 FORZA TITANI 🇸🇲
san marino dominance could bore fans
as a lithuanian, i would cheer for san marino if san marino vs lithuania was going to be a match
because lithuania came last in their nations league group they might get relegated to group D. san marino has been promoted to group C. lithuania could be worse than san marino :O
San Marino is going under his golden age.