March 27 – Gibraltar won their first game as a FIFA nation on Sunday, beating Latvia 1-0 in an international friendly.
The first win as a FIFA nation was also only the national team’s second ever win since they were accepted as a UEFA nation on 24 May 2013 – their previous win coming against Malta in a friendly against Malta which was played in Portugal.
The historic victory came after Liam Walker scored a deflected free-kick in the 88th minute – a goal which made the Notts County player the team’s joint-record goal scorer with a total of two goals.
Although Latvia is hardly a powerhouse of international football, it has a population of 2 million making Gibraltar’s achievement and impressive one as its population is just 30,000.
Since beating Malta, Gibraltar have lost 23 games and conceded 117 goals – a run which included being beaten 9-0 by Belgium, 8-1 by Poland and 7-0 by Poland, Republic of Ireland and Germany.
To be eligible to play for Gibraltar, a player must be a British passport holder who was born in Gibraltar, or has Gibraltarian parents or grandparents, or has attended school for five years locally.
There was a sympathetic reaction to the perennial underdog’s win on social media, with the achievement put into perspective by the fact that the entire population of Gibraltar wouldn’t even fill Stamford Bridge.
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