Soccer-Celebrations in order as San Marino finally score a goal

(Reuters) - Not many national teams would find reason to celebrate a 4-1 defeat, but not many nations are like San Marino, and players representing the tiny country were left delighted after scoring their first goal in a year-and-a-half against Kosovo on Tuesday.

David Tomassini scored from close range three minutes after coming off the bench to mark his country’s first goal since a 3-1 defeat to Kazakhstan in Nov. 2019.

It was San Marino’s first away goal since a 5-1 defeat to Azerbaijan in Sept. 2017 and the players were left jubilant as they flooded to celebrate with Tomassini despite the game being over as a contest with five minutes left to play.

San Marino, a micro-state of around 33,000 inhabitants in north-eastern Italy, is the bottom-ranked national team in the world by FIFA, in 210th place, having never won a competitive game.

Lazio striker Vedat Muriqi scored all four of Kosovo's goals, the last coming on the 75th minute.

(Reporting by Alasdair Mackenzie; Editing by Toby Davis)