Switzerland & Liechtenstein

The Liechtenstein national football team is the national football team of Liechtenstein and is controlled by the Liechtenstein Football Association. The organization is known as the Liechtensteiner Fussballverband in German. more...

Home
Asia
Australia
Br. Comm. Other
Canada
Europe
Albania
Austria
Belgium & Colonies
Bulgaria
Czechoslovakia, Czech...
Denmark & Faroe Islands
Finland
France & Colonies
Germany & Area
Greece
Greenland
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy & Area
Luxembourg
Netherlands & Colonies
Norway
Other
Poland
Portugal & Colonies
Romania
Russia & Area
Spain & Colonies
Sweden
Switzerland & Liechtenstein
Latin America
Middle East
Publications & Supplies
Topical & Specialty
UK (Great Britain)
United States
Worldwide

The team's first match was an unofficial match against Malta in Seoul, a 1-1 draw in 1981. Their first official match came two years later, a 0-1 defeat from Switzerland. Liechtenstein's largest win, a 4-0 win over Luxembourg in a 2006 World Cup qualifier on 13 October 2004, was both its first away win ever and its first win in any World Cup qualifier.

In 1996, Liechtenstein suffered its biggest ever loss, an 11-1 thrashing at the hands of Republic of Macedonia.

The team's record in competitive games was so poor it prompted British writer Charlie Connelly to follow the entire qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup. As recorded in the subsequent book Stamping Grounds: Liechtenstein's Quest for the World Cup, Liechtenstein lost all eight games without scoring a goal.

Four days before Liechtenstein scored its first win in World Cup qualifying, the team made even more headlines with a stunning 2-2 draw in Vaduz in a 2006 World Cup qualifier against Portugal, the losing finalists in Euro 2004. Before this result, Liechtenstein had lost all of its previous 20 World Cup qualifiers. They also caused a shock in the return match at the end of the group phase when Benjamin Fischer scored and Liechtenstein led at half time before eventually losing 2-1.

Liechtenstein are the only country ever to lose to San Marino with a 0-1 loss in a friendly match on 28 April 2004.

History

Liechtenstein are only a relatively recent affiliate to FIFA, and did not participate in any qualifying series until the Euro 96 qualifiers. There they managed to surprise the Republic of Ireland by holding them to a 0-0 draw on 3 June 1995, but quickly gained a reputation as one of Europe's whipping boys, highlighted by an 11-1 defeat to Macedonia in the 1998 World Cup qualifiers. On 14 October 1998 they managed their first victory in a qualifying campaign by winning 2-1 against Azerbaijan in a Euro 2000 qualifying match

Since then, the presence of Liechtenstein clubs in the Swiss league system and of a handful of professional players (most notably Mario Frick) has seen the side's competitiveness improve enormously. The Euro 2004 qualifiers saw Liechtenstein improve to the extent they restricted England to 2-0 wins. The 2006 World Cup qualifiers, however, brought even better results as two wins over Luxembourg and draws against both Slovakia and Portugal meant that Liechtenstein finished with 8 points.

In Euro 2008 qualifiers, Liechtenstein beat Latvia for probably their greatest ever victory - indeed their first against a country that has qualified for a major finals - through a solitary goal from Mario Frick. The result caused the Latvian manager to resign after the match. They repeated their heroics against Iceland managing to beat them 3-0 on October 17, 2007, for their second qualifying group win.

Read more at Wikipedia.org