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Gibraltar Make History With Their First Ever Competitive Win

Gibraltar Make History With Their First Ever Competitive Win

The British territory made their FIFA debut in 2013 and after two previous friendly wins made history in the Nations League on Saturday.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

A lot of people get bored by international football when it's not a tournament but the people of Gibraltar certainly won't be bored tonight after earning their first ever competitive win.

The Nations League hasn't exactly lighting up the world right now. For those of us in England it's seen a fairly standard 2-1 loss to Spain and then Friday night's bore draw with Croatia.

It's led us to long for the days of easy victories over Macedonia and San Marino in qualification paired with meaningless friendlies against Brazil or Germany when there's the odd game to be missed in qualification.

Of course qualifiers for the Euros will come from the beginning of next year but the early season international breaks have been pretty dire up to now.

However there is some light in the darkness. Gibraltar, the whipping boys of European international football since they joined FIFA in 2013, have finally won their first competitive fixture.

At their 23rd attempt, taking in the 2016 Euros qualifiers and 2018 World Cup qualifiers, the country have their first competitive win, beating Armenia 1-0 away from home in the Nations League:

In their competitive fixtures before Saturday night 'Team 54,' as they're known, had lost all 22 games, scoring just five goals and conceeding 107 times.

Against Armenia they kept a clean sheet for the first time and Joseph Chipolina's second-half penalty gave the team ranked 198th in the world their first three points.

Unfortunately for them it still leaves them bottom of the Nations League Pool 4 Group D with Armenia and Lichtenstein also on three points and Macedonia out on their own on nine.

The British owned territory had previously had wins against Malta and Latvia but both those games had been in friendlies, which were likely more meaningful than the ones England usually play.

What an incredible night for Gibraltar, maybe this competition is good for something after all.

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Topics: Football News, FIFA, Nations League, UEFA, England