Selva's men held Estonia to a 0-0 draw in Euro 2016 qualifying, the first time they have avoided defeat since beating Lichtenstein 1-0 in April 2004.
The point was their first ever in the European qualifying phase, and came courtesy of Aldo Simoncini's clean sheet at the Olympic Stadium in Serraville.
Selva, 38, was playing in his 67th international for the country that is landlocked on the Italian mainland, but did not forget his fallen comrade Crescentini - who played eight times for San Marino.
"I remember the win in Liechtenstein [in 2004] but this has a different meaning," Selva said.
"I have been waiting for a result like this for 11 years.
"We are upset about some opportunities we didn't take.
"We want to dedicate this result to Federico Crescentini, a former international who died some years ago.
"We searched for this result for years and now we found it."
Coach Pierangelo Manzaroli was playing one of his 38 caps the last time San Marino earned a competitive point - in a 1-1 draw away to Latvia in World Cup qualifying in 2001 - and he said the nation worked hard to get the result.
"In recent months our workload has increased and the work has paid off," Manzaroli said.
"This result is a reward for the players and it will be an incentive to gain other good results sooner than in 12 years' time."
On the wrong side of history, Estonia coach Magnus Pehrsson refused to accept San Marino were worthy of their point - claiming his side helped them by making too many errors.
"We made a lot of technical mistakes during the game," Pehrsson lamented.
"I think there are three main reasons for this result: first the players didn't recover well from the match against Norway three days ago. Moreover, we haven't been able to develop the ideas and tactical opportunities we worked on ahead of this game.
"I blame myself for this and take full responsibility. Finally we seemed too stressed about this game and we didn't perform as expected.
"San Marino played the game we expected from them: deep defence and counterattacks.
"We have made a lot of history in recent days by winning in Norway and now helping San Marino gain a point."
