Stat Padding Madness: Every Outfield Player Either Scored or Assisted Against San Marino

Stat Padding Madness: Every Outfield Player Either Scored or Assisted Against San Marino

International football is the prime landscape for stat padding.

Big footballing nations often come across minnows with populations and viable squad options amounting to less than your local Sunday League side.

Remember all those goals that Ronaldo has scored against the likes of Liechtenstein? Yeah, that's the definition of a stat pad.

And last night, we got possibly the most abhorrent stat-padding session ever seen, in a World Cup Qualifier no less, by the Austrian National Team.

A 10-0 drubbing of their opposition, San Marino – I mean, it's pretty much a cricket score at that point – to send them top of their qualification group, with a game in hand over 2nd-placed Bosnia.

But the scoreline isn't even the craziest part (it's kind of expected when you play San Marino, unfortunately) because every single outfield player who started the game contributed either a goal or an assist.

I mean, how wild is that? It's almost unheard of.

Austria on Smoke

Austria has been threatening to explode as a footballing nation for a little while now, the current cohort is a perfect blend of experience and youth, and Ralf Ragnick feels like the sort of manager who could produce something special with that squad.

And I'm not going to sit here and tell you battering San Marino is a coming-of-age result. In fact, I think I'd probably get into their team if I had the right heritage, but beating any side by double figures isn't something to be sniffed at.

👜 | You get one, you get one…

Quite remarkably, every single Austrian outfielder who started their match against San Marino recorded at least one goal involvement! 🤯

Special mention goes to Marko Arnautović, the only one to receive a perfect 🔟 Sofascore Rating. 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/tNlR4fTUdd

— Sofascore Football (@SofascoreINT) October 9, 2025

Of course, as you may have guessed by the fact that every player contributed to a goal, there were some pretty good performances in there.

Marko Arnautovic, remember him? Well, the former Stoke City man scored a whopping four goals in the game, somehow not managing a 10 rating from FotMob (do better, lads).

Other big outings saw Stefan Posch score two and get an assist, Romano Schmidt score and assist, and Marcel Sabitzer get two assists… I'll stop there before I go on to name the whole team, shall I?

All things considered, it was a stunning performance, and one that is indicative (yeah, I know big words, and what?) of the way they have performed in said qualifiers throughout.

What Does it Mean Going Forward?

Okay, okay. Qualifying isn't done yet, but – and I don't want to jinx any Austrians who may be reading – if they don't qualify from here, it'd be an absolute travesty.

Five games played, five wins, 19 goals scored, only two conceded. Austria are on an absolute tear through qualifying.

If they continue this form into the World Cup next year, I think it's pretty certain they'll once again be considered a 'dark horse'.

TÜRKIYE DEFEAT AUSTRIA TO BOOK THEIR SPOT IN THE EUROS QUARTERFINALS 🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/4rkF9ldacK

— B/R Football (@brfootball) July 2, 2024

The issue may come from the fact that they were the dark horse at the Euros last time out… and that didn't exactly go well for them (after the group stage anyway), did it?

And you can batter the likes of San Marino all you want, but if you keep underperforming at tournaments, those games can only be considered as… You guessed it… Stat padding.