TheLiechtenstein national football team (German:Liechtensteinische Fussballnationalmannschaft) is the nationalfootball team of the Principality ofLiechtenstein and is controlled by theLiechtenstein Football Association. The organisation is known as theLiechtensteiner Fussballverband inGerman.
The team's first match was an unofficial match againstMalta inSeoul, a 1–1 draw in 1981. Their first official match came two years later, a 0–1 defeat fromSwitzerland. Liechtenstein's largest win, a 4–0 win overLuxembourg in a2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier on 13 October 2004, was both its first away win and its first win in anyFIFA World Cup qualifier.
Liechtenstein are only a relatively recent affiliate toFIFA, and did not participate in any qualifying series until theUEFA Euro 1996 qualifiers. There they managed to surprise theRepublic of Ireland by holding them to a 0–0 draw on 3 June 1995. On 14 October 1998, they managed their first victory in a qualifying campaign after winning 2–1 againstAzerbaijan in aUEFA Euro 2000 qualifying match.
Since then, the presence of Liechtenstein clubs in the Swiss league system and of a handful of professional players (most notablyMario Frick) has seen the side's competitiveness improve slightly. TheEuro 2004 qualifiers saw Liechtenstein improve to the extent they restrictedEngland to 2–0 wins. Also at this time Liechtenstein lost 1–0 againstSan Marino, considered to be the weakest national team. The2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers brought even better results as two wins overLuxembourg and draws against bothSlovakia andPortugal meant that Liechtenstein finished with 8 points.
In theUEFA Euro 2008 qualifiers, Liechtenstein beatLatvia through a solitary goal from Mario Frick. The result caused the Latvian manager to resign after the match. They repeated their heroics againstIceland managing to beat them 3–0 on 17 October 2007 for their second qualifying group win. On 26 March 2008 Liechtenstein had an embarrassing 7–1 loss to fellow small nation in Europe,Malta. This was recorded as Malta's largest win.[5]
The Liechtensteiner Fussballverbund votedRainer Hasler to be their "Golden Player" — their best player over the last 50 years — to mark UEFA's golden jubilee.
For theUEFA Euro 2016 qualifying campaign in France, Liechtenstein managed to finish second-bottom of the group and take five points, managing a goalless draw at home againstMontenegro,[12] an away win againstMoldova, one goal to nil, thanks toFranz Burgmeier's ninth goal[13] and then a 1–1 home draw in the return against the same Moldovans, the group's red lanterns with three fewer units.
During the2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, TheBlue-Reds lost all 10 of their matches and finished bottom of their group with no points scored and just one goal scored (away againstIsrael) compared to 39 conceded.
In 2018, Liechtenstein entered the firstUEFA Nations League, in group 4 of league D.[14] Their first Nations League match sawArmenia beat them 2–1 away. Liechtenstein were able to claim their first Nations League victory, beatingGibraltar 2–0 at home.[15] Liechtenstein finished bottom of their group with just one win and a draw, also at home, against Armenia (2–2).
During theUEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers, Liechtenstein managed to pick up two points thanks to two draws, one away toGreece (1–1) and the other at home to Armenia (1–1), but finished bottom of their group with 2 goals scored and 31 conceded.
In the2020–21 edition of the Nations League, Liechtenstein failed to gain promotion to League C, with a single win (2–0 atSan Marino), two draws (0–0 at home toSan Marino and 1–1 atGibraltar) and one defeat (0–1 at home toGibraltar, their direct rival who eventually gained promotion). TheBlue-Reds disappointed by failing to win a single match at home, once again falling behindGibraltar in the standings as they had done in the previous edition, and being dominated overall in the goalless draw withSan Marino.
The2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers once again saw Liechtenstein finish bottom of their group, with just one point from a 1–1 draw away toArmenia, and 9 defeats, with 2 goals scored and 34 conceded.
The2022–23 edition of the UEFA Nations League was also a disappointment for Liechtenstein, who finished bottom of their group with 6 defeats in as many games played and just one goal scored, away againstAndorra (1–2), their worst record in this competition in 3 editions.
Liechtenstein began 2024 with four friendly matches, losing two and drawing two. One of the draws came away from home againstRomania a few days prior toUEFA Euro 2024, a tournament which Romania had qualified for undefeated.
Liechtenstein began their2024–25 Nations League campaign with a 0–1 loss away to San Marino after a Liechtenstein goal was denied through offside, handing the Sammarinese their first competitive victory.[3] Following this, Liechtenstein proceeded to draw Gibraltar twice (2–2 away and 0–0 at home with a decisive penalty missed in the stoppage time during the return match against Gibraltar) before losing to San Marino again, this time 1–3 in Vaduz, finishing bottom of Group D1 on 2 points.[16] Between the two draws with Gibraltar, Liechtenstein ended a 41-game winless streak with a 1–0 victory overHong Kong.[17]
Prompted by the team's poor record in competitive games, British writerCharlie Connelly followed the entirequalifying campaign for the2002 FIFA World Cup. As recorded in the subsequent bookStamping Grounds: Liechtenstein's Quest for the World Cup, Liechtenstein lost all eight games without scoring a goal.[21]
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