Tiny Gibraltar enjoys historic first competitive football win after anthem blunder
Gibraltar has won a competitive international for the first time with a 1-0 Nations League victory over Armenia in Yerevan — after being mistaken for Liechtenstein.
The tiny British overseas territory beat an Armenia team including Arsenal's Henrikh Mkhitaryan thanks to Joseph Chipolina's 50th-minute penalty.
It was the first time they had won a match other than a friendly since joining UEFA in 2013 and their players danced with joy at the final whistle.
Yet the night had begun badly for the visitors when the national anthem of Liechtenstein was played before kick-off, prompting a disgruntled tweet from Gibraltar's FA.
External Link: Gibraltar FA tweet: Armenia 0 Gibraltar 1
"The Gibraltar FA is very disappointed to note that, prior to tonight's UEFA Nations League match versus Armenia, the national anthem of Liechtenstein was played," it said.
"The Armenian FA has apologised to the Head of Delegation representing the Gibraltar FA in Yerevan for this oversight and an announcement has been made at the national stadium apologising for the error."
The blunder appeared to motivate the Gibraltar players as they held out against the hosts — whose best achievement was just missing out on qualification for Euro 2012 — for the last 40 minutes, having had only 28 per cent possession and mustering two attempts on target.
External Link: Dennis Beiso tweet: Wrong anthem. Right result.
Armenia, captained by Mkhitaryan, had 35 shots — 10 of them on target.
Gibraltar's shock win took it level with Armenia on three points in League D Group 4, six behind leader Macedonia.
Liechtenstein also has three points.
Gibraltar's national team is ranked 198th in the world — the country's population is a little more than 34,000.
The side's first-ever win since joining UEFA was a 1-0 friendly win over Malta in Portugal in 2014, and the team also beat Latvia 1-0 at home in March this year.
External Link: Gibraltar FA tweet: Clean sheet 3 points First ever points That winning feeling
Reuters/ABC
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