France recorded their biggest ever win in men’s international football on Saturday night after they thrashed minnows Gibraltar 14-0 at the Allianz Riviera in Nice. The victory was also the biggest in European Championship qualifying history.
The huge scoreline is still someway off the overall record, though. Throughout the years, men’s international football has seen some incredible one-sided affairs. Here at SportsLens, we take a look at some of the biggest wins ever recorded.
Australia 31-0 American Samoa (2001)
Australia are head and shoulders above the rest in terms of the biggest ever win in men’s international football after they ruthlessly dispatched of American Samoa in a 2002 World Cup qualifier. Archie Thompson helped himself to a staggering 13 goals, which is also a world record for most goals scored by a player in a single men’s international.
American Samoa had to field a number of untried and untested youngsters after passport issues decimated their normal squad. The result also led to FIFA changing the Oceanic qualifying route and the Socceroos were moved to the Asian Football Confederation, so they could play nations of a similar level to themselves.
Tahiti 30-0 Cook Islands (1971)
Tahiti boast the second-biggest win in men’s international football after they dismantled the Cook Islands in Rarotonga in 1971, but neither nation were recognised by FIFA at this point so you may want to take the result with a pinch of salt. Still, it’s mightily impressive.
The Cook Islands can boast a huge improvement in recent times after they lost their last fixture to Tahiti just 3-0 in a friendly played in September of this year. Their last wins came back in 2015 when they beat Samoa 1-0 and Tonga 3-0 in World Cup qualifiers.
In 2001 Australia’s 31-0 victory set the record winning margin in a competitive football international.
Aussie forward Archie Thompson also broke the record for an individual goal scorer in an international after netting 13 times#Australia #ArchieThompson pic.twitter.com/Tqsirmnj62
— Atlas Football (@AtlasFootball24) May 16, 2023
Tonga 0-22 Australia (2001)
Australia feature twice on the list and their 22-0 thrashing against Tonga in a 2002 World Cup qualifier was a record for a FIFA-observed fixture, for two days at least. Former Portsmouth and Coventry striker John Aloisi helped himself to six goals with four of them coming in the first-half.
The Socceroos would score an astonishing 53 goals between April 9th-11th but for all of their goalscoring exploits, they didn’t go on to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea after they bowed out in a play-off, losing 3-1 on aggregate to Uruguay.
North Korea 21-0 Guam (2005)
1966 World Cup quarter-finalists North Korea relived some of the lofty heights from their earlier years when they thrashed Guam 21-0 in 2005. The meeting came in the East Asian Football Championship and Guam felt the wrath of the North Koreans in Taiwan that day.
Kwang-Hyok Kim was the star of the show as he netted an impressive seven goals, with another three players helping themselves to hat-tricks. Guam finished their campaign bottom of the group having shipped 49 goals and scoring just once.
Kuwait 20-0 Bhutan (2000)
There was no love lost on this Valentine’s Day massacre back in 2000 as Kuwait put Bhutan to the sword scoring 20 goals without reply in an Asian Cup qualifier. Bashar Abdullah helped himself to eight goals with teammate Jasem Al-Huwaid netting five.
In total, Kuwait registered seven different goal scorers and one of those was the goalkeeper, who was allowed to step up and dispatch a spot kick with 13 minutes remaining. This in itself really did rub salt into the wounds of the Bhutan side.
Iran 19-0 Guam (2000)
Guam fell victim again to another heavy defeat, this time succumbing 19-0 to Iran in a World Cup qualifier in November 2000. Iran went fairly easy on them in the first-half, with the score being a rather modest 8-0 as the players headed in for the half-time team talk.
Whatever was said during the break inspired Iran to go on and score another 11 times, with the legendary Ali Daei registering a hat-trick. Three other players would go on to notch trebles as Guam endured another international drubbing.
🇫🇷 France beat Gibraltar 14-0 and it’s the biggest win in their national team history.
⚽️ Santos [own goal]⚽️ Thuram
⚽️ Zaire-Emery
⚽️ Mbappé
⚽️ Clauss
⚽️ Coman
⚽️ Fofana
⚽️ Rabiot
⚽️ Coman
⚽️ Dembélé
⚽️ Mbappé
⚽️ Mbappé
⚽️ Giroud
⚽️ Giroud pic.twitter.com/LR1ScvfCxT— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) November 18, 2023
France 14-0 Gibraltar (2023)
France were in devastating form on Saturday as they crushed Gibraltar 14-0 in a Euro 2024 qualifier. Les Bleus were already assured of a place in Germany next summer but that didn’t stop them from showing no mercy against the European minnows.
Kylian Mbappe helped himself to a hat-trick, with Olivier Giroud and Kingsley Coman each netting a brace. Marcus Thuram, Warren Zaire-Emery, Jonathan Clauss, Youssouf Fofana, Adrien Rabiot and Ousmane Dembele were all on target in Nice, with the first goal coming from the boot of Gibraltar’s Ethan Santos. The visitors really didn’t help themselves when they were reduced to 10-men after just 18 minutes.
San Marino 0-13 Germany (2006)
Until Saturday night, it was Germany who held the record for the biggest win in European Championship qualifying history when they trounced San Marino 13-0 in 2006. Former Arsenal striker Lukas Podolski fired in four goals, scoring a brace in each half.
Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose and Thomas Hitzlsperger all scored twice with the remaining goals coming from Michael Ballack, Manuel Friedrich and Bernd Schneider. To this day, it is the German’s biggest ever win in international football.
Add Sportslens to your Google News Feed!
