LEE CASCIARO
Gibraltar’s Lee Casciaro discusses his country’s crushing defeat to France, their improved form in the Nations League and the upcoming play-out against Lithuania
"After a long battle for recognition, Gibraltar finally joined UEFA in 2013, becoming its smallest member in terms of both population and land mass. A British Overseas Territory of just 32,000 people will always face huge obstacles on the international stage, but their tenth year of official competition was perhaps the toughest yet.
Gibraltar lost all ten games they played in 2023, conceding 46 goals and failing to score even once. The nadir was a 14-0 hammering by France in November that made headlines around the world. While this aberrant result had little impact on their Euro 2024 qualifying group, it reignited the eternal debate about how the process is structured and who it serves.
An Ethan Santos own goal after three minutes set the tone for a long and painful night. Gibraltar had barely kicked off before they conceded a second, Marcus Thuram tapping home a rebound from close range. The hapless Santos was then dismissed for a foul on Warren Zaire-Emery as the teenage debutant scored France’s third. Everything unravelled from there.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult game,” says Lee Casciaro, who played the full 90 minutes at the Allianz Riviera in Nice. “It’s an achievement for us, as a small nation, to try to compete at that level. They’ve got so many stars playing at the top level in France, England and Spain. We were unlucky. We got somebody sent off and that just crushed any potential defensive formation we were going to play. After that, it was going to be even harder to keep the score down.”
A loss was almost inevitable from the outset, given the vast disparity in status, resources and football pedigree between the two teams, but not by such a demoralising scoreline. Although the early red card – and the absence of regular starters like Bernardo Lopes, Ethan Britto, Kian Ronan and Graeme Torrilla – left Gibraltar badly exposed, Casciaro still feels they could have done more to hold back the tide.
“It obviously wasn’t a nice feeling to be on the pitch because you can’t get out your half and you’re struggling to get the ball. At the end of the day, we still could have kept a better formation defensively and made it more difficult for them. Looking back at the game, we lacked maturity and the right defensive setup. We should learn from that,” says the 42-year-old forward.
“France made more fouls than us even though we conceded 14 goals. The boys need to toughen up and put themselves about. Be a bit more aggressive and get in their faces, which we did against the Netherlands three days down the line.
