Who says selection football and beating automatically brings us back to an evening in July 2014 and a 7-1 victory for Germany against Brazil. A large and humiliating score inflicted on the Auriverdes at home during their World Cup and what amounts to the biggest defeat in their history. However, on the scale of selection football, this is nothing compared to other results which took place in the 21st century and which concerned two selections. The good example is the victory yesterday of the French team at the Allianz Riviera in Nice against Gibraltar. In demonstration against the selection of the Iberian Peninsula, the Blues won 14-0, which represents the biggest victory in their history. A match which made the French team, the European team win with the highest score in an elimination match.
The previous record was held by Germany during the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Against San Marino, the Germans won 13-0 including a quadruplet from Lukas Podolski. Currently 207th in the FIFA rankings. The Serenissima has experienced disastrous results over the years. We can think of a 10-0 against Poland (2010 World Cup qualifiers), an 11-0 against the Netherlands (Euro 2012 qualifiers), a 9-0 against Russia (Euro 2020 qualifiers), the same score against Belgium (Euro 2020 qualifiers) or recently a 10-0 defeat against England (2022 World Cup qualifiers). New rival in heavy defeats, Gibraltar, in addition to the 14-0 conceded against the Blues, suffered a heavy 9-0 defeat against Belgium during the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
31-0, the record for Australia
To end with the heavy defeats in Europe, we can note a 9-0 victory for Germany against Liechtenstein during the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup and a 9-0 success for Portugal against Luxembourg during the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup. Euro 2024. If South America is a confederation where the level remains balanced, Africa for its part has a system which makes it possible to avoid excessively unbalanced meetings, but this tends to evolve. If during the CAN 2023 qualifiers, Nigeria won 10-0 against Sao Tome and Principe, the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup mix all the selections and offer more unbalanced scenarios. This is the case, for example, of Côte d’Ivoire which crushed the Seychelles 9-0.
Now in the Asian zone, Australia was completely above the competition, particularly during the 2002 World Cup qualifiers. The Socceroos crushed Tonga 22-0 with a six-goal from John Aloisi and a four-goal from Damian Mori. But it was nothing compared to the match of April 11, 2001. Opposed to American Samoa, the Australians will completely crush their opponent. While celebrating his second cap and having scored in the previous match, striker Archie Thompson will score 13 goals in this match and become the player to have scored the most goals in an international match. His teammate David Zdrilic will not be outdone with an octuplet (8 goals). Final score, a 31-0 massacre which is still the biggest gap recorded in an international meeting today.
The 2002 World Cup qualifiers also wreaked havoc in Asia. Placed in a group with Iran and Tajikistan, Guam experienced a nightmare more than 20 years ago, losing 19-0 and 16-0 respectively to the two teams. Recently, we have seen other very important scores on the Asian scene. Qatar beat Bhutan 15-0 in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. At the 2022 World Cup, Japan crushed Mongolia 14-0 in the qualifiers. Iran did even better against Cambodia with victories 14-0 and 10-0 in the two confrontations. Disproportionate gaps and river scores which make the charm of these international meetings where David goes up against Goliath. This time, however, things usually go wrong…
