Luxembourg national football team


The Luxembourg national football team is the national football team of Luxembourg, and is controlled by the Luxembourg Football Federation. The team plays most of its home matches at the Stade Josy Barthel in Luxembourg City.
Luxembourg has participated in every FIFA World Cup qualifiers since those for the 1934 World Cup and in UEFA European Championship qualifiers since those for Euro 1964. As of 2018, they never qualified for any of these major tournaments. Luxembourg is the nation with the most qualifying campaigns in both of these competitions without ever making it to the finals. However they did compete in six Olympic football events between 1920 and 1952.

History

Luxembourg played their first ever international match on 29 October 1911, in a friendly match against France; it resulted in a 1–4 defeat. Their first victory came on 8 February 1914, also in a match against France, which they won 5–4.
The national side of Luxembourg competed in six Olympic football events between 1920 and 1952, and survived the preliminary round twice. In between, Luxembourg started participating at qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup, but as of 2018 they still never qualified.
Starting in 1921, the Luxembourg national A-selection would play 239 unofficial international matches until 1981, mostly against other country's B-teams like those of Belgium, France, Switzerland and West Germany, as well as a team representing South-Netherlands.
After their last Olympic tournament in 1952, the national team also started playing in qualifying groups for UEFA European Championships, but could not reach the major European tournament end stages. The only time that the team was close to qualify was for a European or World Championship was for the Euro 1964. In the first qualification round they defeated the Netherlands with a score of 3–2 on aggregate after two matches. A Dutch newspaper commented this stunt after the second match with "David Luxembourg won with 2–1 ". In the round of eight, Luxembourg and Denmark fought for a spot in the final tournament. The winner was decided after three matches; Denmark was the winner with a total aggregate score of 6–5.
When the national team does win a competitive match, they are often celebrated by national media and fans, as was the case after a 2–1 win against Switzerland in 2008.
On 3 September 2017, Luxembourg held France to a 0–0 draw at Stadium Municipal in Toulouse, France. It was the first time France had failed to win against Luxembourg since 1914, when Luxembourg won 5–4. On 10 November 2017, Luxembourg pulled off an upset by defeating Hungary 2–1 in a friendly.

Uniform

Traditionally, the badge on Luxembourg's team outfit displays a shield very similar to Luxembourg's lesser coat of arms, a red lion on a white-blue striped background – hence the team's nickname Red Lions. In modern times, the team played home games in entirely red strips, in accordance with their nickname, and wore white as away colour.

Home stadium

The Luxembourg national team normally plays its home matches at the Stade Josy Barthel in Luxembourg City, the national stadium of Luxembourg. At this location, the national team played 235 games by August 2015, including unofficial games. It is also used for rugby union and athletics.
Originally called Stade Municipal after its construction in 1928–1931, it was entirely rebuilt in 1990. Since July 1993, it has carried the name of Josy Barthel, the 1500m gold medalist at the 1952 Olympics and Luxembourg's only Olympic gold medal winner. The stadium is also home to the biggest athletics club in the country, CAL Spora Luxembourg. The spectator capacity is 8,000; some seats are under cover, some in the open air.

Management

The following managers have been in charge of Luxembourg's national squad:
NameNationalityLuxembourg
career
Paul Feierstein1933–1948
Jean-Pierre Hoscheid
Jules Müller
Albert Reuter
1948–1949
Adolf Patek1949–1953
Béla Volentik1953–1955
Eduard Havlicek1955
Nándor Lengyel1955–1959
Pierre Sinibaldi1959–1960
Robert Heinz1960–1969
Ernst Melchior1969–1972
Gilbert Legrand1972–1977
Arthur Schoos1978
Louis Pilot1978–1984
Jozef Vliers1984
Josy Kirchens1985
Paul Philipp1985–2001
Allan Simonsen2001–2004
Guy Hellers2004–2010
Luc Holtz2010–present

Current staff

The crew that guides the Luxembourg national team includes following members:
PositionName
ManagerLuc Holtz
Goalkeeping coachFrank Thieltges
Physical coachClaude Origer
Technical directorReinhold Breu
Team doctorsMarc Reuter
Robert Huberty
PhysiotherapistsYannick Zenner
Ben Moes

Players

In 2004, the Luxembourg Football Federation selected Louis Pilot as their Golden Player, Luxembourg's greatest player of the past 50 years.

Current squad

The following players were called up for the Euro 2020 qualifying matches against Serbia on 14 November 2019 and Portugal on 17 November 2019.

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the Luxembourg squad during last 12 months.
RET Player retired from the national team.

Previous squads

As of 17 November 2019 after the match against Portugal.
#PlayerCapsPeriod
1Mario Mutsch1022005–2019
2Daniel da Mota992007–
3Jeff Strasser981993–2010
4René Peters932000–2013
5Jonathan Joubert902006–2017
6Eric Hoffmann892002–2014
7Carlo Weis871978–1998
8Aurélien Joachim802005–
9François Konter771955–1969
10Lars Krogh Gerson752008–

Top goalscorers

As of 17 November 2019 after the match against Portugal.
#PlayerGoalsPeriod
1Léon Mart161933–1945
2Gustave Kemp151938–1945
2Aurélien Joachim152005–
4Camille Libar141938–1947
5Nicolas Kettel131946–1959
6François Müller121949–1954
7Léon Letsch111947–1963
8Gilbert Dussier91971–1978

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

UEFA European Championship

Olympic Games

Minor tournaments

Results and forthcoming fixtures

As of 17 November 2019 after the match against Portugal, the Luxembourg national team playing record is as follows:
PlayedWonDrawnLostForAgainst
40336493182501105

Recent results and fixtures are as follows:

2019

2020

Head to head records

As of 17 November 2019 after the match against Portugal.
OpponentPWDL
1100
7214
1010
1010
6006
3021
12246
191315
6006
140113
1001
1001
4031
3003
2101
7016
11029
5005
1010
9009
3012
3012
5104
181116
1100
4112
131012
9108
10109
7034
9009
9018
7016
3012
4211
1010
6321
1100
6141
1001
3003
1001
182115
1001
4112
4202
11218
7016
171115
5005
6006
100010
2200
1001
4013
1010
2002
2002
5104
4004
1001
6006
6015
121110
1100
1010
7106
5005
1001
1001
6006
9018

Footnotes