Didier Deschamps' side ran up a massive score against their part-time opponents, who were reduced to 10 men early in the game
(Image credit: Getty Images)
It looks more like a rugby score. France thrashed Gibraltar 14-0 on Saturday on a record-breaking evening in Nice. Playing against 10 men from the 18th minute, some said it was disrespectful, but Les Blues kept on scoring.
France took the lead inside three minutes at the Allianz Riviera stadium after an own goal by Gibraltar's Ethan Santos. And a minute later, Marcus Thuram had doubled the hosts' advantage.
With 16 minutes on the clock, Warren Zaire-Emery made history with France's third. The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder was France's youngest post-war starter and the 17-year-old became their youngest scorer in over 100 years as he converted with his right foot from a Kingsley Coman cross.
But he was forced off following a dangerous challenge by Santos two minutes later as the Gibraltar defender caught him on the ankle and was shown a straight red card.
Three goals down and with a man sent off, Gibraltar still had over 70 miutes to play and France showed no mercy to their opponents.
Kylian Mbappe made it 4-0 from the penalty spot after half an hour, before additional strikes from Jonathan Clauss, Coman and Youssouf Fofana gave Les Blues a 7-0 lead at the break.
Mbappe added two more in the second half to complete his hat-trick and bring up 300 career goals, including a 40-yard lob late in the game.
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
Substitute Olivier Giroud also scored twice and saw another ruled out by VAR, while there were further strikes from Adrien Rabiot, Coman again and Ousmane Dembele.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
"In the preparation, we wanted to win this match in style. Either by doing it well or very well," Deschamps said after the game.
"Already at 11 players it was hard for them, but at 10 it was harder. We knew how to respect the opponent, and 14 goals is not bad."
How does it compare to other big international wins?
France's 14-0 win over Gibraltar is the biggest in European history, but there have been plenty of other one-sided games over the years.
In Euro 2008 qualiying, Germany beat San Marino 13-0 away from home. Lukas Podolski scored four that night in September 2006, with Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose and Thomas Hitzlsperger all on target twice.
San Marino are no strangers to those kind of results, having also lost 10-1 to Belgium, 10-0 to England and Norway and 11-0 to the Netherlands in qualification matches in recent years.
In 1983, Spain hammered Malta 12-1 in a Euro qualifier in Seville. La Roja needed to win by 11 goals to edge out the Dutch and make it Euro 1984. It looked unlikely at 1-1 and with a 3-1 advantage at the break, but a flurry of second-half goals saw the Spanish get the win they needed in the end. Santillana and Poli Rincón scored four each.
Australia thrashed American Samoa 31-0 in a 2002 World Cup qualifier to rack up the biggest-ever international win, a result which brought about a format change. Meanwhile, USA beat Thailand 13-0 in the 2019 Women's World Cup and in the men's tournament, who could forget Germany's 7-1 win over hosts Brazil in 2014?
Ben Hayward is the Weekend Editor of FourFourTwo. A European football writer and Tottenham Hotspur fan with over 15 years’ experience, he has covered games all over the world - including three World Cups, several Champions League finals, Euros, Copa America - and has spent much of that time in Spain. Ben speaks English and Spanish, currently dividing his time between Barcelona and London, covering all the big talking points of the weekend on FFT: he’s also written several list features and interviewed Guglielmo Vicario for the magazine.
