France fans will forever remember the memorable night when Les Bleus humiliated Gibraltar by an astounding scoreline of 14-0 in their European Championship qualifying match. Kylian Mbappé stood out with a hat trick, leaving no doubt about the vast difference in quality between the world's second-ranked team and the 198th-ranked country they faced.
France's victory in the Allianz Riviera, Nice, by a massive margin made history in the qualifiers. The 14-0 win surpassed Germany's 13-0 victory against San Marino in 2006 and became the first instance where a European team scored 14 goals in a World Cup or European Championship qualifying match, as reported by Reuters. Mbappé's remarkable long-range goal to complete his hat trick stood out among the seven goals scored in each half on that memorable night.
Warren Zaïre-Emery, aged 17 years, eight months and 11 days, also made history as he became Frances youngest player since 1914 and marked his debut with a first-half goal.
France's 14-0 victory over Gibraltar was a record-breaking one.
Philippe Lecoeur/FEP/Icon Sport/Getty Images
The Gibraltar team had a tough start to the night as Ethan Santos unfortunately scored an own goal within just three minutes. From that point onward, things went downhill for the visitors as Santos received a red card in the 18th minute for a foul on Zaïre-Emery, leading to his withdrawal from the game.
France showcased their dominance on the field with goals from Marcus Thuram, Jonathan Clauss, Youssouf Fofana, Adrien Rabiot, and Ousmane Dembélé. Olivier Giroud and Kingsley Coman both contributed with two goals each.
According to Reuters, France manager Didier Deschamps acknowledged the disadvantage of having only 10 players, but still credited his team for their performance and emphasized the importance of both respecting the opponent and scoring goals. Deschamps stated, "Fourteen goals is quite commendable." France made 39 attempts on goal, with 19 on target, while Gibraltar failed to create any chances.
France, already qualified for Euro 2024 in Germany, is top of Group B while a winless Gibraltar is bottom on zero points without having yet scored a goal during qualification.