first match was an unofficial match against
Malta in
Seoul , a 1-1 draw in
1981 . Their first official match came two years later, a 0-1 defeat to Switzerland. Liechtenstein's largest win, a 4-0 win over
Luxembourg in a
2006 World Cup qualifier on
13 October 2004 , was both its first away win ever and its first win in any
World Cup qualifier.
In
1996 , Liechtenstein suffered its biggest ever loss, an 11-1 thrashing at the hands of Macedonia.
The team's record in competitive games was so poor it prompted British writer
Charlie Connelly to follow the entire
Qualifying Campaign for the 2002
World Cup . As recorded in the subsequent book ''Stamping Grounds: Liechtenstein's Quest for the World Cup'', Liechtenstein lost all eight games without scoring a goal.
Liechtenstein 's coach
Martin Andermatt was up until recently the manager of the Liechtenstein team
FC Vaduz , which, like all the country's clubs, plays in the
Swiss league system, specifically the
Challenge League . He was appointed in
March 2004 , taking over from Ralf Loose.
Four days before Liechtenstein scored its first win in World Cup qualifying, the team made even more headlines with a stunning 2-2 draw in Vaduz in a
2006 World Cup Qualifier against
Portugal , the losing finalists in
Euro 2004 . Before this result, Liechtenstein had lost all of its previous 20 World Cup qualifiers.
Liechtenstein are only a relatively recent affiliate to FIFA, and did not participate in any qualifying series until the
Euro 96 qualifiers. There they managed to surprise the
Republic Of Ireland by holding them to a 0-0 draw, but quickly gained a reputation as one of Europe's whipping boys, highlighted by an 11-1 defeat to
Macedonia in the
1998 World Cup qualifiers.
Since then, the presence of Liechtenstein clubs in the Swiss league system and of a handful of professional players (most notably
Mario Frick ) has seen the side's competitiveness improve enormously. The
Euro 2004 qualifiers saw Liechtenstein improve to the extent they restricted England to 2-0 wins. The
2006 World Cup qualifiers, however, brought even better results as two wins over Luxembourg and draws with Portugal and Slovakia meant that Liechtenstein finished with 8 points. Although they were beaten 7-0 by Slovakia, they also lost only 2-1 to Portugal away after taking the lead.
