Gibraltar enter world football stage with stunning goalless draw

England v Germany? World Cup qualifier play-offs? Zlatan v Cristiano?

No, the eyes of anyone with an ounce of sense this evening were on the Algarve Stadium in Portugal as Gibraltar played its first ever official international football match – coming away with a goalless draw against Slovakia, which, in context, was pretty sensational.

Gibraltar’s old ground, the Victoria Stadium. Picture: Flickr, Malcolm Tredinnick

Earlier this year the British Overseas Territory, famous for its Rock, for its monkeys and for the fact it intensely annoys Spaniards, was admitted to UEFA.

There have been fears for the ability of the scoreboard to cope when Gibraltar lines up in the qualifiers for Euro 2016, with potential match-ups against Germany or the Netherlands (a potentially epic fixture against Spain will be purposely avoided by UEFA) predicted to be just a little bit tricky for the team representing a population of just 30,000, slightly less than each of traditional whipping boys San Marino and Liechtenstein.

In many ways it would make sense for those and other minnows to hold a separate competition, pre-qualifiers to avoid the kind of mismatches which saw San Marino finish the most recent qualifiers having conceded 54 goals (scoring one) in their 10 games.

On the other hand, we’d all be the poorer if we missed out on gems like this, featuring Martin Tyler’s “humiliation here” commentary:

Anyway, Gibraltar held its own tonight against a Slovakia team – admittedly weakened – ranked 65th in the world: hardly one of world football’s great sides, but they did qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, beating defending champions Italy 3-2 in the process as they unexpectedly reached the weirdly-named Round of 16.

Gibraltar National squad walk proudly along Faro city centre…. pic.twitter.com/sHYCrAp3Rg

— Ian Martinez (@sharpsnapper) November 18, 2013

The game at the Algarve Stadium, where Gibraltar are playing while their new ground is built ahead of the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, was goalless, something the 500 fans who had made the trek across the Iberian peninsula would surely have taken prior to kick off. A 91st-minute Slovakian header which struck the crossbar would have been a cruel blow, especially for keeper Jordan Perez, who had an excellent game.

“It feels like a victory!” exclaimed the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation commentators at the final whistle. It did.

Full Time: Gibraltar 0-0 Slovakia commendable result for Allen Bula's men. Will go back to Gib proud.

— Football Gibraltar (@FootballGib) November 19, 2013

Aside from the fact this was a UK territory’s first official international, British interest in the match was predominantly focused on former Premier League player Danny Higginbotham, who qualifies via his mother. His uncle Allen Bula ia the Gibraltar coach, and he has promised to quit if he can’t take his side to 43rd in Europe over the next couple of years, a place currently occupied by Georgia. **

Scene at Estadio Algaeve as @GibraltarFA warm up before the match @RGPolice present in #Gibraltar #history #proud pic.twitter.com/ftKLxUVcCX

— Supt. R Mifsud RGP (@SuptRMifsud) November 19, 2013

 

Deluded? Perhaps. But if they approach games differently to San Marino, Andorra and the like – whose sole ambition often appears to be to hack their opponents off the field – that would be a positive move.

Tonight’s goalless draw was a good start for football’s newest nation.

**The first version of the post stated erroneously Bula wanted Gibraltar to be 43rd in the world as opposed to among the 54 UEFA nations. Thanks to Sam Barnard for pointing out the mistake.

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P.S.:

It's a record: Gibraltar the only unbeaten team in world football history … first-ever game ends 0-0 vs Slovakia

— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) November 19, 2013