An unprecedented situation for European football: little Andorra is a favorite for the first time

09/02/2021 6:00 AM

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 09/02/2021 6:00 AM

They were 29 minutes of the first half.

Alex Martínez, left pointer who plays for the Santa Coloma Football Club, faced at speed, dribbled before the arrival of full-back James Bosio, took a powerful right hand that made the effort of the Gibraltar goalkeeper impossible and the ball

crashed on the crossbar

.

Andorra

had just lost its last eight games, between official and friendly matches, and that shot was inches away from giving it

a historic joy.

The 0-0 was not to regret, anyway.

It is the prelude to a stage that you can hardly ever climb: this Thursday a match will start

as a favorite.

The historical line of the Andorran team indicates that although it played some games in the late 1980s, it was not until 1996 that it was recognized by FIFA and UEFA.

What the books do not mark is that February 22, 2017 represents, in practice,

a re-foundation.

... missing 9 days ... #

theseconvocat 🇦🇩 @Fedandfut - 🇸🇲 @FSGC_official #ElReptedAndorra pic.twitter.com/pim4FogsLb

- Andorran Football Federation (@Fedandfut) August 24, 2021

It was against

San Marino

, the same rival that he will face this Thursday from 3:45 p.m. for the fourth date of the European Qualifiers towards the Qatar 2022 World Cup. That time, the match was marked as "the most important friendly in history."

It was necessary to look at the rear-view mirror to confirm the sentence:

86 losses in a series

were cut with 2-0 at the San Marino Olympic stadium in Serravalle.

Thirteen years without triumphs

were left behind with the 2-0 of the team of Koldo Álvarez, the coach who continues in the Pyrenean bank.

“Our goal is to compete - said the DT - and we believe that against San Marino we can do it.

The result is not the important thing, but it is clear that breaking the losing streak would be good

although it is not what worries me the most. "

Since October 2004

, when he had overtaken Macedonia, he had

not managed to prevail.

And in the 86 falls in cataracts stand out a 1-8 against the Czech Republic, 0-7 against Croatia or the 0-6 suffered against Portugal, Russia, Ukraine and England.

The hinge against San Marino in 2017 included the plus of a rival

with a similar backpack.

The only victory of the micro-state of 30 thousand inhabitants had also been in 2004, 1-0 against Liechtenstein in a friendly, although unlike Andorra (which came with three victories in history) it could never add three in a match official.

And he still does not achieve it

: accumulates 111 games without winning.

Their last matches: 0-1 in a friendly against Italy's under-20 team, 1-4 against Kosovo, 0-7 with Italy, 0-2 against Albania, 0-3 against Hungary, 0-5 against England and 0-0 against Gibraltar, in the match that was presented as the great chance to break the drought.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Federació Andorrana de Futbol (@fedandfut)

That 2-0 against San Marino, allowed Andorra to live

an unprecedented spring and spent a whole year without losing

, with only one goal against in 455 minutes.

Until now there are three official victories recorded by Andorra since the Federation was created: in 1994 they beat Macedonia 1-0 for the World Cup qualification in Germany;

In 2017 he hit the ground running and achieved

the most important result in its history

by defeating Hungary from position 186 in the FIFA ranking (33rd on that list) 1-0 in the Qualifiers heading to Russia;

and two years later they beat Moldova 1-0.

The big difference is that, this time

and for the first time

, he will play a match in which he starts as a favorite.

That condition was earned, of course, since due to his performances in the last four years he had

access for the first time in his history to the penultimate ciborium

in the draw for the qualifying rounds.

"We took a load off our shoulders. A positive result has changed everything. We took off that slab of 13 years without winning and since then we have improved a lot. In that game against San Marino

we had all the pressure in the world. And we took it off

" , recalls the Andorra coach about that key meeting in 2017.

At the clash on Thursday, he arrives at step

156 of the FIFA ranking

.

In

209

is his rival, San Marino, which is only below

Anguilla

, which has lost

13-0

to Panama.

At the moment, three qualifying rounds have been played and both Andorra and San Marino

do not score points

.

The Pyrenees lost 1-0 to Albania, 3-0 to Poland and 4-1 to Hungary.

The “Serenísima” fell to England, Hungary and Albania and remained at the bottom of Group I with 10 goals against and none in favor.

In the vicinity of the national stadium there is a special preview of the match against San Marino.

In the vicinity of the National Stadium of Andorra, with capacity for just over three thousand people, in recent days they installed an arch for people to come to kick and try to put the ball through some holes to obtain a prize.

Under the hashtag #estasconvocat they

try to generate interest in a party that is presented as unique.

The national team's qualifying record for points was 5 points, en route to Germany 2006, thanks to 1-0 at home and 0-0 away to Macedonia and a goalless draw at home against Finland.

Now San Marino is in the group.

And never before has it been more feasible to dream

of reaching six points.

Look also

Cristiano Ronaldo, huge: wrong penalty and two goals on the hour to break a historical record

"Soteldo is more than Messi": the controversial comment of a Venezuelan journalist that went viral