Somalia Beat Zimbabwe to Claim First-Ever World Cup Victory

Somalia made history on Thursday night as they won their first-ever World Cup qualifying match, beating Zimbabwe 1-0 in a tight affair. 

The Somalia national side were on a losing run of 19 consecutive defeats, dating back over eight years, before they shocked the world with their recent qualifying success. 

Thursday's victors are currently number 202 in the FIFA world rankings (San Marino are the last-placed team on 211), 90 places below their opponents Zimbabwe, who they will face again on Tuesday in the second leg of the qualifying round.

Somalia's winning-goal hero was Anwar Sid Ali Shakunda, who nodded in the dramatic winner in the 87th minute, to end his side's wretched losing streak. 

Somalia handed seven debuts to players from a host of immigrant communities in Europe and North America, in order to strengthen and diversify their squad. As reported by the BBC, one player Mohamud Ali, of Greater Manchester semi-professional side Curzon Ashton, is a driving instructor, who left his students to take part in the fixture.

The game was also played in Djibouti, over 500 miles away from Somalia, due to security risks in the host's war-torn home country.  

Elsewhere in the competition, Rwanda claimed an important 3-0 away victory over the Seychelles in the first leg of their qualifying round. 

The result is the biggest winning margin of the African World Cup qualifying campaign so far, with first-half goals from Muhadjiri Hakizimana and Yannick Mukunzi giving the away side the lead.

Meddy Kagare rounded off the scoring ten minutes from the end, to gain an important lead for the Rwandans. 

Ramadan Agab was the hat-trick hero for Sudan, as they beat opponents Chad 3-1. Agab took advantage of a poor clearance from Chad goalkeeper Adoum Defallah, who smashed the ball straight at the striker, and the Sudanese player punished the shot-stopper accordingly.