SERRAVALLE, San Marino -- Waiting 20 years to win a football match is an unbearably long time for any team, even if you are officially the worst in the world. But for San Marino, those two decades of hurt made the joy of Thursday's 1-0 win over Liechtenstein even more special.
The concept of the long-suffering fan has become something of a cliché in football, but supporters of San Marino's national football team can legitimately consider themselves the longest suffering of all.
The tiny country of just 33,000 people, surrounded entirely by Italy -- one of men's international football's most successful nations -- had amassed the unenviable record of going two decades without a win.