November 5, 6 & 7, 2021
Friday November 5,
2021
Swift Hesperange 7-0
Rm Hamm Benfica ( att : 152 )
FC Rodange 91 0-1
Progres Niederkorn ( att : 150 )
Saturday November 6,
2021
CS Fola Esch 0-3 F91
Dudelange ( att : 485 )
Sunday November 7,
2021
Differdange FC03 1-4
US Hostert ( att : 425 )
Etzella Ettelbruck 1-2
Racing FC Union Luxembourg ( att : 180 )
UNA Stassen 3-2 FC
Wiltz 71 ( att : 225 )
US Mondorf Les Bains
2-1 Union Titus Petange ( att : 470 )
Victoria Rosport 2-0
Jeunesse Esch ( att : 295 )
Coverage of the
Luxembourg National Division has improved tremendously since the start of the
global Covid pandemic. Whereas before, viewers in the UK might have been lucky
to find the occasional highlights on one or two clubs YouTube channels, all matches
each round, except for some reason those played at FC Rodange, are now currently
being streamed live on www.rtl.lu, with goal highlights
and the complete games also being subsequently available to view without any
geographical restrictions. For sponsorship reasons, the league is also known as the BGL Ligue
I have attended two
football matches in Luxembourg. The first was the last round of the 1994/95
season when on a European tour with some friends, in which we were able to
watch 11 matches in 13 days, with the pinnacle being the Champions League final
in Vienna, where Ajax beat Milan 1-0. Our match in Luxembourg was a Saturday
afternoon 16.30 kick-off local time between Grevenmacher and F91 Dudelange,
when Grevenmacher went into the final day level on points with Jeunesse Esch
but with an inferior goal difference. Although Grevenmacher won their match
2-1, news came through as we were heading out of the stadium to head off to
Metz vs Sochaux that Jeunesse Esch had also won their match to clinch the title.
None of the local supporters appeared to be too upset by this news.
My other match was the
Luxembourg vs England Euro Qualifier in 1998, when living in the Netherlands at
the time, I was able to drive down on the day to see the game at the Josy
Barthel Stadium. Along with 8,053 others I witnessed a 3-0 victory for England
with Owen, Shearer and Southgate being the scorers after Luxembourg had missed
a penalty in the 5th minute when the scores were 0-0. Entrance was
700 LUF, which was the equivalent of about £15 if I remember correctly.
The Luxembourg
National Division is now a 16 team division, in which the 2020/21 champions
were Fola Esch, who finished two points ahead of F91 Dudelange, with Swift
Hesperange a point further behind. Four sides qualify for European football whilst the bottom two sides are relegated to the second level Promotion d'Honneur, The sides finishing in 13th and 14th will face relegation/promotion play-offs
Fola had an eventful
European campaign. After the huge embarrassment of being eliminated by Lincoln
Red Imps of Gibraltar, including a 0-5
defeat in the shadow of the rock, they recovered to surprise Shakhtyor
Soligorsk in the Europa Conference , winning both matches to progress 3-1 on
aggregate, and then overcame Linfield 4-2 over two legs. Kairat Almaty of
Kazakhstan were ultimately too strong, with Fola succumbing 2-7 on aggregate.
Elsewhere, F91
Dudelange were eliminated at the first hurdle by Bohemians of Ireland ( 0-4 on
aggregate ), Swift Hesperange were knocked out 1-2 by Domzale from Slovenia and
Racing lost 2-5 on aggregate to Breidablik of Iceland.
Round 11 started with
two matches on Friday evening, and Swift re-ignited any faint title hopes
with a thumping victory over hapless Hamm Benfica, having apparently
declared at half-time with a 7-0 lead. Florik Shala scored 3 times in his
second appearance after transferring from Progres Niederkorn whilst German
defender Dominik Stoltz also claimed a hat-trick. Benfica actually held out for the first 20
minutes but conceded all seven goals in a 25 minutes spell featuring some clueless
defending and comedy goal-keeping. Benfica have now lost 10 of their 11
matches, with their only points coming from a home win over fellow strugglers
Victoria Rosport.
Benfica are not bottom
of the table though, as FC Rodange have an even worse record, and after
slipping to a 0-1 home defeat to Progres Niederkorn, now have just one
point from 11 matches. French striker Antoine Mazure-Hanus scored the only goal
of the game in the 66th minute to edge Progres to a narrow win and to
remain in a contender spot. Niederkorn’s biggest claim to fame is probably
eliminating Glasow Rangers from the Europa League in 2017, and they also drew
with the Scottish side in 2019 before bowing out 0-2 on aggregate.
The one match on
Saturday was probably the pick of the round, with champions Fola hosting
league leaders F91 Dudelange. Since an unexpected loss at US Mondorf Les
Bains on the opening round of the season, Fola were unbeaten in the league and
lay in 5th place in the table. Dudelange possessed a 7-2-1 record,
with their only reverse being at Differdange. Fola’s hopes in inflicting a
defeat on Dudelange took a set-back when the visitors took the lead in the 5th
minute with a deft chip from Tunisia forward Adel Bettaieb over the advancing
keeper, and matters got worse in the 28th minute when Dejvid Sinani
claimed his 8th goal of the season, running on to a header through
the square defence to slot home. Ex-Olympic Charleroi player Kevin van der
Kerkhof completed the scoring in the 59th minute, running onto a long
hopeful ball out of defence to finish into the top corner.
After a 10th
place finish last season UNA Strassen started this season with 2 losses
in their first 4 matches, but since then had taken 16 points out of 18. A 3-2
home win over struggling FC Wiltz kept up their unexpected challenge
thanks to two goals from ex-Moeskroen striker Nicolas Perez, who moved to 12
goals for the season. After conceding a 6th
minute penalty from a handball offence, Wiltz got back into the match via
Bosnian Sanel Ibrahamovic’s fifth goal of the season. Denis Agovic restored
UNA’s lead but Wiltz pegged them back again 4 minutes into the second half with
their second headed goal, this time through German defender Hamza Cetinkaya.
Perez though decided the contest 13 minutes from time with a spectacular volley
off the underside of the bar, after a cross had been poorly cleared to him on
the edge of the penalty area.
Racing FC Union Luxembourg remained in third place after a late win in
Ettlebruck. Racing appeared to be heading for a routine victory after ex-Cambuur,
Waregem and Stoke Swiss forward Karim Rossi had steered a cross from the left
past the home keeper to give the visitors a first half lead, but the match
looked to have turned 15 minutes from the end when Amdy Konte was shown a red
card for a handball on the line, and Brazilian Gustavo converted the penalty
for Etzella . However, the 10 men snatched victory in added on time thanks
to Congelese striker Yann Mabella’s 8th goal of the season, having a
simple tap-in after being left unmarked at the far post from a cross from the
left. Etzella slipped to third from bottom.
Differdange’s hopes of getting back to the fringes of European
qualification suffered a set-back with a 1-4 loss at home to mid-table US
Hostert. The visitors led 2-0 at the break, and although Andreas Buch
pulled a goal back with a header 4 minutes into the second half, Hostert ran
out easy victors. Ryad Habbas scored twice for Hostert, one from the penalty
spot, to move to 8 goals for the season.
At the bottom Victoria
Rosport earned three much needed points with a home win over Jeunesse
Esch. Latvian Davis Spruds gave Victoria the lead in the 9th
minute with a header from a corner and their task was made easier after a
second yellow card was shown to forward Brice Tutu for a reckless challenge on
the Victoria keeper just before half-time, which could easily have been a
straight red card. Gilles Feltes’ 63rd minute header from a
free-kick wrapped up the scoring. Jeunesse,
who hold a record 28 league titles and once drew 1-1 with Liverpool in 1973,
look to be facing a hard season.
In the final game of
the round US Mondorf Les Bains beat Union Titus Petange 2-1 in a clash
between two mid-table sides but front of the second largest crowd of the
weekend. Petange led at the interval thanks to a long-range effort from Patrik
Teixeira. However, second half headers from ex Heidenheim forward Smail Morabit
and Henid Ramdedovic saw the home side take the three points.
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