Winners 14-0 over Gibraltar on Saturday as part of the Euro 2024 qualifiers, the Blues broke a European record but remain far from the benchmark in this area.
From 10-0 – a great score recorded in September 1995 against Azerbaijan – the Blues rose to a record of 14-0, Saturday in Nice against Gibraltar, for the biggest victory in their history. “ The players asked me at halftime what the record was. They did the right thing. We must not trivialize even if we were facing a team that was weaker and reduced to tensaid Didier Deschamps afterwards in front of the press. We did everything to make the score important. This is the ambition of this team, beyond ensuring we are seeded at the Euro. There are always higher demands and it’s nice that players meet these challenges almost every time. »
Beyond this national record, the Blues have thus established a new European record since never before has a selection from the continent been so successful in qualifying for a major tournament – Euro or World Cup. The previous reference mark was to the credit of Germany. In 2006, Miroslav Klose and others defeated San Marino 13-0 in the Euro 2008 qualifiers.
A record at 31-0
On a global scale, however, there is still some room between the French team and the absolute record. During qualifying for the 2002 World Cup in April 2021, Australia outclassed American Samoa with a scathing 31-0 victory. In front of 3,000 spectators in Coffs Harbour, striker Archie Thompson scored 13 goals alone – a record. His teammate David Zdrilic scored an octuplet.
