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Tomorrow Wednesday, the Austrian team will play its next international match, which will serve as a dress rehearsal for the last two days of the UEFA Nations League. In the midst of the Crown crisis, Austria is staying in LuxembourgAt first glance, a win is imperative and ideally it should be as high as possible. However, if you take a closer look at the Grand Duchy, it becomes clear that the next encounter will certainly not be an easy task.
Luxembourg: a country on the rise
Because football in Luxembourg has improved and developed significantly in recent years. Gone are the days when it only served as cannon fodder for other teams in the qualifying rounds of international tournaments. Of course, Luxembourg still plays the outsider role in most duels, but the small country finds its way in this better than in earlier times. Successes like a 2-1 away win against Switzerland or a 0-0 win against eventual world champion France in 2017 gave the team enormous self-confidence. As a result of this, Luxembourg achieved a huge rebound and the FIFA world rankings continued to climb. In 2006, the Grand Duchy was ranked 186 and in 2017 it was ranked 83, still the best today.
Nations League successes
At the moment they are “only” 95th, but Austria will face what is probably the strongest team in Luxembourg history. The team seems well rehearsed, some players have been on the field together for the national team for years. National coaches also play an important role in the successes of their country. Luc holtzwho has cared for the team since 2010. This made it his task to continually develop and improve football in Luxembourg. The introduction of the Nations League was also good for the Grand Duchy, after all you can compete with equally strong teams in this competition. If it was still in league D when the tournament was first played, the national team has now reached league C third class. There he is after victories against Azerbaijan, Cyprus and Montenegro in strong first place and has suffered only one defeat so far. If Luxembourg wins the last two games against Azerbaijan and Cyprus, the promotion is fixed. This would probably be the greatest success in the history of the small state.
The team
But who are those actors who led your country to such successes? Blaming individual players for success here would be an insult to the team, because the star is clearly the team. Above all, the players convince with their attitude and cohesion, you do not depend on a single player. Above all, the continuity within the national team and the low turnover of players is good for the team. The equipment is well tested, certain automatisms work. In addition, the tactical approach of coach Holtz in most cases hardly changes and he is perfectly coordinated with the team. The team had enough time to internalize and adapt to it.
However, there are some players who deserve a special mention. For example, captain Laurent janswho has been part of the team for a long time and who leads the team. His strength lies above all in his flexibility, the 28-year-old Standard Liège player can take on any defensive role and has already played 64 international appearances for Luxembourg. The defensive midfielder is just as important Lars Gersonwhich has Norwegian roots. He even made 75 appearances for his country and currently plays for IFK Norrköping in Sweden. The two most promising players are possibly the two midfielders Leandro Barreiro (FSV Mainz 05) and Vincent Thill (National CD). The latter was once in the spotlight of the German record champion Bayern Munich. The forward secures goals Gerson Rodrigueswho currently has a contract with Dynamo Kiev. Some players also play for local club F91 Dudelange, which shouldn’t only be known to Salzburg fans by now. In 2019 they even qualified for the group stage of the Europa League.
The tactical direction
But what can our national team expect tomorrow? The tactical orientation of the Luxembourgers will likely be slightly different compared to previous Nations League games, in which the Grand Duchy was no longer the clear outsider and even had to partially play the game. Against Austria you will concentrate mainly on defense and will remain compact. The goal will be to stay clean for as long as possible and become dangerous on counterattacks. The bankruptcy against Latvia has already shown that the Austrian team may have problems with that style of play, to which coach Holtz can orient himself. Predicting a lineup is virtually impossible, given that the encounter is just a friendly match and the current Corona crisis is turning football upside down anyway, it could also be shot. But regardless of the personal details on the Luxembourg pitch tomorrow, the match will certainly not be a piece of cake for our national team, who have won every encounter with the Grand Duchy so far.
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