Built Expectations: Look At Luxembourg | Israel today

From a team made up of farmers, teachers and cooks and considered the cannon fodder of Europe, Luxembourg has changed its face - and for the first time feels part of the celebration and not being celebrated at its expense • After the victory in Ireland, tonight it will try to create a sensation against Portugal

• Luxembourg players celebrate against Ireland.

  Towards another splash?

  Photo: 

  IPI

The Luxembourg team suddenly encountered a problem that seemed imaginary a few years back.

Tonight (Tuesday), she will arrive for the meeting with European champions Portugal when the residents of the small country have expectations of her.

From a team that was ranked at the bottom of the FIFA rankings, the 200th region in the world, it jumped within a decade to a peak of 82 and today to 98.

There is no team in the world that has made such a leap in such a period of time, and if the expectations were there for the opening of the World Cup qualifiers - one can only describe what heights skyrocketed after the 0: 1 victory over Ireland in Dublin in the first round.

"I think our fans have seen that we are getting better and better and now they want us to keep getting better," association president Paul Phillip told IT. "The problem now is to explain to people that we will not be able to progress as fast. We are small and even if we win we will continue to be small."

Philip, who made 54 appearances for the team, coached her for 15 years and in 2004 was appointed president of the association, he is primarily responsible for Luxembourg's progress.

As one who has been there for so many years he has closely experienced many games in which Luxembourg have absorbed amounts of goals and losses, so, when he took office, the first thing he did was make sure that local football stopped being so amateurish.

"We had to change our mentality," he told the Guardian in an interview, and that change began with the establishment of the first football school in the city of Mondercange in 2001.

At the same time, ties were forged with clubs in Belgium, Germany and France, and instead of a team made up of farmers, teachers, bankers and cooks, today the squad consists of players from the above leagues as well as the Netherlands, Switzerland, USA, Portugal, Croatia and Ukraine.

"Encouraged to go to Europe"

Luxembourg's record game, which marked the start of the ascent, was 0-0 against France in Toulouse in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, followed by a draw against Bulgaria and the first version of the League of Nations, which set the small team apart from the continent.

Luxembourg defeated San Marino (twice) and Moldova, rising from fourth to third.

There, she defeated Azerbaijan, Cyprus and Montenegro last year for a month and a week.

The goals were scored by, among others, Denel Sinani from Belgian Bayern Munich and star Gerson Rodriguez, who plays for Dynamo Kiev, and also scored the winning goal against Ireland in the last round.

"Our league is not good enough to promote the national team," Phillip admitted in an interview with the association's website, "so we encourage our young players to leave for Europe as soon as possible."

Iceland as a role model

According to Philip, the process is very orderly.

"We follow our players from the age of 10-9. The best come to the national football complex, and there they stay. At the weekend they play in their team, but the rest of the time they are with us - get an education that will allow them to go to Europe and integrate there. Only at 17-16 we We are starting to offer them to the groups we are in close contact with in France and Belgium. "

Recent successes and the size of the country - only 600,000 people - have brought with them comparisons to Iceland.

And indeed, Philip admits that Icelandic football was the inspiration when building the Luxembourg model, but he also points to one significant difference.

"In Iceland, athletes want to go to Europe at a very young age, but here it is difficult to produce this competitiveness. What can young people do well in Luxembourg?"

Now that football is starting to get good, too, the question is what next.

"We know we have made tremendous progress, so our confidence is high and we are not afraid," coach Luke Holtz said before the game against Ireland, and these things made sense.

Towards Portugal tonight he was more moderate and said: "This is the strongest Portugal in history with a player who is superhuman, so we have a lot of respect for them."

Luxembourg is aware that its chances of reaching the World Cup in Qatar are small to nil, but for the first time it starts the journey when it feels like it belongs.

Which is part of the celebration, and not one that is celebrated at its expense