On Tuesday 20 June 2023, Luxembourg played their fourth match of the EURO2024 men's football qualifiers, Group J, away to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a team that had defeated them in all four previous encounters, at the Stadion Bilino Polje in Zenica.
Following their first win of the campaign, on Saturday 17 June 2023 at home to Liechtenstein, when Danel Sinani and Gerson Rodrigues scored for the home side for a 2-0 win, the away team were up for the challenge against a team ranked 34 places higher than them in the FIFA rankings (Luxembourg #91; Bosnia and Herzegovina #57). Going into the game, Luxembourg were 3rd in the table on four points, one position ahead of the home side which had 3 points, both having played three games.
Luxembourg started strongly, with Borges Sanches netting the first goal of the game in the fourth minute. With both teams having changes, the home team went close in the eighteenth minute when Kodro hit the woodwork of Luxembourg's goal. Bosnia and Herzegovina were pressing the strongest and it took some desperate defending from Luxembourg to keep them at bay.
0-1 at half-time, immediately after the break, Bosnia and Herzegovina made two substitutions
The home side were awarded a penalty in the 55th minute after VAR adjudged Luxembourg's Florian Bohnert had fouled Dzeko; however, Amir Hadžiahmetović missed the spot kick and the chance to draw level. Bohnert received a yellow card for his endeavours. Soon afterwards, Luxembourg made their first substitution of the game, with Martins replacing Curci.
Bosnia and Herzegovina could not find an equaliser and, in trying to do so, left their defence unguarded. Luxembourg took advantage of this and scored their second goal of the game on 74 minutes when Danel Sinani slotted home past the home side's goalkeeper following an assist by Barreiro.
With just seven minutes left of normal time, Luxembourg made their second substitution of the night, with Carlson replacing Borges Sanches, a defender replacing a midfielder, as Luxembourg looked to hang on for the away win. Three minutes later, Martin - on as a second-half substitute - received Luxembourg's second booking of the game, with Moris picking up the away team's third just two minutes later, along with the home team's Džeko. To help wind down the clock, Danel Sinani was replaced by Dejvid Sinani in the first of nine minutes of time added on.
Bosnia and Herzegovina kept fighting and forced a save from Moris at the death. Luxembourg had just 43% of the possession but made better use of it than their hosts; while Bosnia and Herzegovina had ten shots on goal, Luxembourg had just five.
Luxembourg hung on for a 2-0 away win which cemented their 3rd place in the group, with seven points. Elsewhere in the group, Portugal had to wait until the 89th minute of their game away to Iceland to score (Ronaldo) and take home a 1-0 away win; and Slovakia scored in first half injury time for a 1-0 away win at Liechtenstein.
Luxembourg: Moris (GK); Olesen; Chanot; Mahmutovic; Jans (c); Martins Pereira; Barreiro; Bohnert; Sinani; Curci; Borges Sanches.
