Following their run of good results in their EURO2024 Group J qualifying matches, including Friday evening's 1-1- away draw in Reykjavik against Iceland, Luxembourg's men's international football team faced arguably their most important fixture in their history on Monday 16 October 2023.
The result of the home match against Slovakia could go a significant way towards deciding which team would join Portugal and qualify for next summer's tournament; going into the match, Slovakia were lying in second place on thirteen points, with Luxembourg two points back in third. A home win would see Luxembourg leapfrog their opponents with just two rounds of games remaining and into the coveted automatic qualifying position. However, history has not been kind to Luxembourg in this fixture: the Red Lions have lost two and drawn one of the three games played between the teams (earlier in the qualifying Group J, the game in Trnava ended in a 0-0 draw).
In front of a full house at the Stade de Luxembourg, the Red Lions showed five changes from the team that started Friday's match away to Iceland, with Dirk Carlson, Mica Pinto, Eldin Dzogovic and Alessio Curci all dropping to the bench and Enes Mahmutovic missing out altogether.
Both sides started strongly, pressing and playing attacking football. With just 20 minutes gone, Slovakia's Vavro was adjudged by the referee to have fouled Barreiro in the box and awarded a penalty, only for VAR to show that the challenge was fair and the decision was overturned.
Five minutes later, Luxembourg's Vincent Thill was the first player to be shown a yellow card by the referee for a foul, with Laurent Jans joining him a minute later. Both sides were committed and the referee added Slovakia's Peter Pekarik to his book a few minutes later. Both teams had shots on target, but both defences and goalkeepers kept the score-sheet at 0-0, even with three minutes of added time at the end of the first half.
The second half started in very much the same vein as how the first half finished. With 25 minutes left to play, Slovakia were the first to bring on replacements, with a double substitution, changing their front duo. Ten minutes later, with both teams going close, Danel Sinani was booked, just before Slovakia silenced the home crowd when Hancko fed David Duris who beat the Luxembourg keeper, Anthony Moris. 0-1 to Slovakia.
With ten minutes of regulation time left to play, Slovakia's Robert Bozenik's name was added to the growing list in the referee's notebook.
With two minutes of normal time left, Luxembourg made a double substitution with a last roll of the dice, with Alessio Curci and Dirk Carlson replacing Laurent Jans and Vincent Thill.
In the four minutes of added time, two more Slovakian players had their names entered in the referee's book as Luxembourg went search of an equaliser, with Luxembourg's Matrhias Oelsen also joining them.
But it was not to be, and Slovakia took the win, opening a five-point gap between then and third-placed Luxembourg. The Red Lions had recorded 14 attempts on goal, compared to Slovakia's eight, and enjoyed 55% of possession.
In other games in the same group played the same evening, Bosnia and Herzegovina lost 0-5 at home to Portugal and Iceland won 4-0 at home to Liechtenstein, leaving them one point behind Luxembourg in the table.
Luxembourg's remaining games are at home to Bosnia and Herzegovina on 16 November and away to Liechtenstein on 19 November, with Slovakia playing Iceland at home and away to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Luxembourg: Anthony Moris (GK); Laurent Jans (c); Lars Gerson; Maxime Chanot; Marvin Martins; Vincent Thill; Leandro Barreiro; Christopher Martins; Gerson Rodriguez; Danel Sinani; Mathias Olesen.
