Having already qualified for the 2022 World Cup, Germany once again demonstrated their dominance over Group F by inflicted a heavyweight drubbing on Liechtenstein.
The night began with World Cup-winning former coach Joachim Low receiving an official farewell, before his successor, Hansi Flick, set a new national record by winning his sixth game in a row since taking charge.
🇩🇪 9️⃣🆚0️⃣🇱🇮
Our biggest win since 2006!Starting the international break strong 🙌#DieMannschaft pic.twitter.com/aDfYer6Lzj
— Germany (@DFB_Team_EN) November 12, 2021
Leroy Sane and Thomas Muller both scored twice as Die Mannshaft galloped to a formidable 9-0 victory in Wolfsburg.
While undoubtedly impressive. Germany’s rout of Liechtenstein doesn’t come close to their biggest-ever competitive win — a 13-0 thrashing of San Marino in a European Championship qualifier in September 2006.
Germany’s biggest men’s World Cup qualifying win is 12-0, when they routed Cyprus in Essen in May 1969, but that just fails to make the top 10 of the biggest men’s World Cup qualifying wins ever witnessed.
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Fiji 13-0 American Samoa (2001)
The first appearance of American Samoa comes just inside the top 10, thanks to a hefty 13-0 decimation of Fiji that kicked off their 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign.
However, as you’re about to find out, this was actually one of American Samao’s best defensive performances of the competition.
Mongolia 0-14 Japan (2021)
The second-biggest win in Japan’s men’s football history, the national side thrashed Mongolia 14-0 earlier this year.
Nine different goal scorers registered for the Samurai Blue, including Liverpool midfielder Takumi Minamino, against opponents who were ranked 190th in the world at the time.
Iran 14-0 Cambodia (2019)
Eight different goal scorers got in on the act as Iran powered to double figures against Cambodia in the second round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2020 World Cup.
Karim Ansarifard claimed the lion’s share of the spoils, with the former Nottingham Forest forward helping himself to four goals.
However, the match will go down in history for an altogether different reason, as female fans were allowed back into the stadium in Tehran to watch live football after previously being prohibited from doing so for several decades.
Qatar 15-0 Bhutan (2015)
Qatar finished top of their group in first stage of the Asian qualification process for the 2018 World Cup, dispensing a rather weighty 15-0 loss on Bhutan along the way.
Despite their initial form, they then went onto finish bottom of their group in the next phase after losing seven of their 10 games.
Vanuatu 15-0 America Samoa (2007)
Vanuatu made it through the group stages of the 2007 Pacific Games, which served as the preliminary OFC qualifying rounds for the 2010 World Cup.
The islanders went onto win bronze at the tournament after ending their group with a goal difference of +20 from just four outings, two-thirds of which was accrued in a single game against American Samoa.
Spoiler alert: This still isn’t the last time American Samoa will crop up in this top 10!
Fiji 16-0 Tuvalu (2007)
Fiji sadly didn’t qualify as Oceania’s entrant for the 2010 World Cup (that honour went to New Zealand) but they did make their mark by pulverising Tuvalu, a microscopic Pacific island with a population considerably smaller than the Scottish town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, by 16 goals to nil.
Tajikistan 16-0 Guam (2000)
Guam suffered a succession of embarrassing defeats during their 2002 World Cup qualification campaign, with two of them featuring in the top five here.
Compared to their performance against Iran, the Pacific islanders kept things relatively tight against Tajikistan by only letting 16 goals slip.
Iran 19-0 Guam (2000)
Iran ultimately missed out on a place at the 2002 World Cup after losing to Republic of Ireland in the playoffs, but not before they knocked poor old Guam for 19 in the Asian qualifiers.
The game saw Iranian legend Ali Daei net a hat trick on his way to scoring 109 goals in 149 games — a men’s international record that stood from 2006 until it was finally surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo in September.
Australia 22-0 Tonga (2001)
Australia broke two world records in the space of just two days when they embarked on a stunning goal binge in the 2002 World Cup qualifying phase in Oceania.
The Socceroos warmed up by blasting 22 unanswered goals past Tonga as John Aloisi scored six while Kevin Muscat and Damian Mori both pitched in with four apiece in an avalanche that began in the third minute.
Australia 31-0 American Samoa (2001)
Perhaps the most infamous scoreline in football history, Australia ran riot against tiny American Samoa and ultimately passed the 30-goal barrier to smash their own world record, initially set just two days prior.
Indeed, the free-scoring Socceroos took their tally to 53 goals in approximately 48 hours as striker Archie Thompson scored 13 goals against American Samoa (having only found the net once against Tonga) in New South Wales.
Thompson’s haul still stands as a single-game record to this day, and also represents almost half of the total number of goals he scored for his country during his entire international career (28 in 54 games),
Australia’s emphatic victory was so momentous that a movie was made about it several years later, with the 2014 documentary “Next Goal Wins” examining the impact that the result had on American Samoa.
