After a daunting two months while the teams were preparing for the second half of the season on cold winter afternoons on end, they are finally back in business – some teams hit the ground running, while others looked far from ready for the action.
Similarly to our curtain-raiser in the autumn, we have once again experienced a minor goal-fest, with the teams finding the net 34 times across the eight games. They largely made for an interesting watch, too, and if anyone has decided to watch Luxembourgish football for the first time in their lives this year, I hope they did so last weekend.
Jeunesse Esch and a great escape(?)
While such labels might only be reserved for big end-of-season comebacks, Jeunesse definitely defied the odds in their 5-2 win at home against Wiltz 71, with the triumph taking them all the way up to 11th place from 15th.
News of long-term injuries to important members of their squad shed a dim light over their prospects for the remainder of the year, with the club placing well in the relegation zone with 15 games to play.
Losing their first match in 2024 to Victoria Rosport certainly did little to help their fortunes, but they were able to make an emphatic comeback last Sunday by dismantling Wiltz.
Alexis Larrière opened the scoring early on in Esch-sur-Alzette, before following it up, all within the first ten minutes, to make it a brace for himself. The next goal was João Teixeira’s astonishing piece of brilliance, with a well-taken free-kick drilled skilfully over the wall and right into the top corner from near the edge of the box.
The teams left the pitch for half-time with a 3-0 scoreline that left little doubt about Jeunesse’s intentions to escape the danger zone, with goal differences proving crucial in a congested table. That being said, Wiltz were able to pull one back shortly after the hour mark, courtesy of their talismanic goalscorer Benjamin Romeyns.
Goals from debutant Armando Mendes Jr and Toni Luisi had the Eschers coasting to a safe win in the latter stages of the game, despite their team conceding a penalty heading into the last ten minutes of normal time.
This statement win came at the best time when many started to doubt Jeunesse’s abilities to cope without their first-choice goalkeeper, an experienced attacker and a useful midfielder for months. Now, with the city derby against Fola Esch to be played next week, it looks like the much-needed dose of confidence was injected in the record champions’ players at just the right time.
FCD beat seven bells out of Racing!
FC Differdange have set the record of the biggest win of the campaign last week when they beat Racing Union Luxembourg by a resounding 7-0 score. It is also the highest scoreline since FCD last ra riot against Käerjéng in April 2023, a game that ended in a 0-8 win away from home for the red-and-blacks.
That eight-goal triumph was ultimately insufficient to gain FCD the league title at the end of the season thanks to a rampant Swift Hesperange side, but the outlook has changed quite a bit this time around. Hesper look short of their best form and are decimated by internal trouble and divide within the dressing room. Differdange, meanwhile, are unbeaten and first, with the most goals scored, the least conceded, and a number of frightening weapons to call upon in attack, much like the 2022/23 Hesper had.
It’s hard to pick out one name from the bunch from this latest game, but Kenny Nagera definitely did a lot to earn a man-of-the-match title. A hat-trick makes it nine goals in eleven games for the Frenchman, who is certainly using the league as the sort of springboard that gained his countryman Rayan Philippe a professional contract in Germany last summer.
Jorginho, FCD’s top marksman this season, also bagged two goals himself, besides an assist for an easy Nagera tap-in that made it 3-0. The Portuguese striker, once on the books of Sporting Braga, arrived in the Grand Duchy from Pevidem in his homeland, and has adjusted to his new surroundings incredibly well, firing Differdange towards a title charge. January arrival Artur Abreu netted once in his first game back at the club, too.
But, although all of the above sounds nice and admirable, this game was very much a story of two tales. Racing FCUL goalkeeper Hugo Do Rego suffered a severe-looking injury in the 24th minute, the score standing at 2-0, and signalled to be taken off. This prompted the unexpected appearance of back-up shot-stopper Noah Olm (17), signed from Alisontia Steinsel’s youth team in the January and playing a senior BGL Ligue game by mid-February.
Olm rarely looked up to the task of stopping a monstrous FCD attack filled with creative individuals who found their way through a disjointed Racing team more often than not. Olm cannot be held accountable for all the goals the Sky Blues after his substitusion, but he was nevertheless directly responsible for some of them. For instance, his failure to boot the ball out before the fifth goal presented Nagera with an empty-net opportunity he didn’t miss, while more bravery and anticipation could have prevented a sloppy Jorginho goal after a corner, where the ball was bouncing between defenders and attackers alike, while Olm did little to stop himself from merely spectating the turn of events.
As is the case with all young players, Olm needs faith and patience. This experience will no doubt push him to perform stronger next time. However, with the youngest squad and manager in the league, moments like this from Olm and others can prove extremely costly for Marco Martino’s team in a season where the fifth-placed team is as close to the relegation zone as they are to fourth place.
Union hit thrice with depleted attack; Holzhauser compensates for Hesper absentees
Arguably the most thrilling match-up of the gameweek brought Union Titus Pétange facing reigning champions Swift Hesper.
Having lost much of their attacking firepower mid-season in Abreu and Kempes Tekiela, UTP tried to make up for its losses by signing Belmin Muratović, a Metz academy graduate who had lately become surplus to requirements in Niederkorn.
Meanwhile, Swift experienced many issues in the winter but the depleted squad wasn’t one. Due to the lack of an expected widespread sale of fringe players (in lieu of any suitors), manager Roland Vrabec found himself with a squad of roughly 40 players, for a 15-game period between now and June. This resulted in him splitting the squad in two, creating a ‘loft’ consisting of fringe players and dressing room rebels, who would play a friendly game each Saturday, before the A Team takes on their league opponents the next day.
The so-called loft was extended last week, though, after reports of a players’ protest began to spread in Luxembourgish media. The players insisted they would not step foot on the pitch until they get their unpaid salaries from the previous two months. The reaction from the board of directors was to duly tell those players they should focus on the football, as the bad form is what apparently made the investors pull the plug on expenses for a temporary period of time.
The salaries are said to have been paid successfully in time for their game against Union, but protesting individuals such as top scorer Dominik Stolz or Madagascar international Clément Couturier remained frozen out from the squad.
With all the tension boiling in the dressing room, it was hard to imagine Hesper finding their feet early and getting off to a strong start to their spring. Their new signing, Raphael Holzhauser (former Austria international) seemed to be oblivious to all the scrutiny as he put his team ahead with a spot kick before converting a direct free kick as well. Sadly for him, the defence didn’t quite reach the same standards: first goalkeeper Géordan Dupire made an enormous blunder trying to save Muratović’s shot but dropping it, then in the closing stages the defenders failed to clear the ball from a cross efficiently, which fell to Valentin Fuss who was therefore able to score his second of the game.
A draw will undoubtedly be satisfactory in Pétange, even though they were seconds away from taking all three points. At Hesper, the blow was softened somewhat with their late equaliser, and there were indeed promising signs, but the seven-point gap to unbeaten Differdange on top is getting harder and harder to bridge.
Around the pitches
Mondorf scored two goals in extra time at home to defeat Mondercange. The three points were key in lifting Mondorf into the top half of the table, while FCM are in the relegation play-off places after their late collapse.
Claudio Lombardelli recorded a perfect start to his managerial career at F91 Dudelange, as his team picked Fola apart and scored four goals without an answer from the Eschers. F91 are still the main competitors of FCD for the league title, despite some player and manager turmoil over the course of the season so far. Fola remain in last place, four points off the rest of the pack.
Progrès Niederkorn had precious few problems beating newly-promoted Marisca Mersch as they sailed to a 3-0 victory away from home. Although Marisca never realistically expected a result from this match-up, they can be disappointed with the lack of attacking edge put on display by the team. Progrès caught up with Hesper in joint-third place with their latest win, while Marisca are still just about escaping the relegation dogfight.
Schifflange drew to Victoria Rosport at home in the earliest game on the day, from 2.30pm on Sunday. Former Monaco and Fenerbahçe winger Nabil Dirar made his long-awaited debut for last season’s Ehrenpromotion champions, but contributed little to a 2-2 scoreline that keeps Schifflange under relegation threat. Rosport are joint-eighth, level on points with Mondorf.
Strassen limped to a 0-1 victory in the least eventful match of Gameweek 16, defeating Käerjéng despite the heroic efforts of young goalkeeper Noah Scheidweiler. Käerjéng stay in the relegation zone, four points above Fola and two points below the other contenders. Strassen are seventh and look safe.
As always, the games’ live commentaries, highlights and full video footage are all available on RTL.lu’s Live Arena hub
