San Marino was my destiny, says coach after famous victory

San Marino finally celebrated its first competitive victory by beating Liechtenstein, 20 years after its only other win against the same opponents. Leading the country was always his destiny, Roberto Cevoli told Reuters on Friday.

Thursday's 1-0 Nations League victory ended a 140-match winless streak since their last friendly win. The man who led the team to victory may be Italian by birth, but has close ties to the small republic surrounded by Italy.

“San Marino has given me so much professionally and after spending many years here and marrying a girl from San Marino, I also decided to become a San Marino citizen,” Cevoli told Reuters.

“San Marino was my destiny. As a young player, I played for a year for a club in San Marino, where I was discovered and called up to a professional club.

“It all started from there, all the way to Serie A with Modena and my subsequent career as a coach.”

Cevoli was appointed coach of San Marino at the end of last year and gave 13 players their debuts in his first five games as manager, including Nicko Sensoli, who scored the goal against Liechtenstein.

Despite their lack of success, even the more experienced players of the lowest-ranked team in the world never gave up their pursuit of that elusive victory.

“Staying motivated is in the nature of each of us. We must not lose heart when we don't win games, that's part of football and we have to be aware of it,” said Cevoli.

“It is important to have the right determination, to always want to improve and to look for an impulse to grow in every training session, every day.”

It is perhaps fitting that one of San Marino's most famous moments ended in another heavy defeat. In a World Cup qualifier against England in 1993, San Marino scored after 8.3 seconds to take a surprise lead before losing 7-1.

In Cervoli's first game as coach, the team also took the lead against St. Kitts and Nevis, but lost 3-1. So when Sensoli scored the first goal against Liechtenstein on Wednesday, the team could easily have feared losing another lead.

“Not really, we stayed calm and stayed in the game until the end,” said the manager.

“The difficult part came when the referee ordered seven minutes of injury time. Then we became nervous and restless. Fortunately, we managed to keep our lead and celebrate the victory thanks to the boys' performance.”

San Marino's next game is a friendly against Moldova on Tuesday before moving on to Group D of the Nations League, which includes Liechtenstein and Gibraltar, but Cevoli is looking further ahead.

“I would like to face stronger teams because I have never faced such teams in my career as a player and coach. I want to compare myself with the best in the world, for example England, Germany, France or Spain,” he said.

“And at least we are sure that we will face one of the top nations in the World Cup qualifiers.” REUTERS