The Rise of Europe's Biggest Underdog
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- Опубліковано 17 бер 2024
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One of the worst teams in world football has quietly and dramatically improved.
In March 2024, Luxembourg could qualify for their first-ever international tournament.
So, how did a tiny country in Europe find itself on the brink of a footballing miracle?
James Montague writes, Marco Bevilacqua illustrates.
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#Football #Euro2024 #Luxembourg - Спорт
![[柴犬ASMR]曼玉Manyu&小白Bai 毛发护理Spa asmr](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0TsXQ7z2Dh4/mqdefault.jpg)
Fun fact: 14.5 percent of the population are Portuguese due to immigration from Portugal in the sixties because of poverty and jobs
So when Portugal does it it’s okay 😪
@@tombo416 well they're both EU member states so yeah
In Luxembourg it's really annoying in the evenings when Portugal have just won a match because people drive round honking their horns.
@@tombo416yes, good
Portuxembourg time 😂
As a Luxembourger who has been watching your channel for years now, this makes me incredibly proud and happy to see a video about our national team! When I started watching the national team's matches in the mid 2000s, a draw or even scoring a goal was a great success. Nowadays, we are unhappy if we don't win against the likes of Slovakia or Azerbaijan. But the fans here in Luxembourg tend to forget where this team is coming from, and how bad we were 15 years ago.
Same here! I never would have dreamed that Tifo would ever mention anything Luxembourg related in connection to football. After all, the Brits still perceive us more as a laughing stock given the poor results our teams had achieved internationally and our small size. Although, we in fact do have football heritage as well! In 1973 for example Jeunesse Esch managed to hold Liverpool to a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Luxembourg. Liverpool had just won the 'Champions League' in 1972 so naturally, it was arguably the biggest achievement of a Luxembourg team to this date! Even if they didn't win that game it is still cherished as an historical achievement that last year celebrated it's 50th anniversary.
And the recent 9-0 lise agaisnt Portugal.
i think the 2 or 3 best clubs should compete in Germany's 2nd or 1st Bundesliga, this will be a big step and development in Luxenburg national team
@@F91killer 👀👀👀
Some important infos:
1.Dudelange's Europa League campaigns had notable surprises. In their debut season, they were placed in Group of Death that contained Milan, Olympiacos, and Real Betis. Despite losing the first 5 games, Dudelange surprised Real Betis with a goalless draw at home. In the second season, again in Europa League, Dudelange upset APOEL with a 4-3 win at home, having initially failed to protect a 2-0 lead after APOEL scored 3 goals. Dudelange also avoided a defeat against Qarabag with a 1-1 draw at Baku.
2.Sebastien Thill became the first Luxembourgish players to score in the Champions League. He did so with Moldovian side Sheriff Tiraspol. One of his goal was notable as it resulted in one of the greatest upsets in the Champions League, as Sheriff beat Real Madrid 2-1 in 2021-22 season, despite the fact that Real Madrid had won the competition after this shock defeat.
What's also been left out is that F91 managed to qualify for Europa League Group Stage in back to back seasons I believe. So they didn't just pull it off once! Also the manager who achieved it the first historic qualification with them is now managing Eintracht Frankfurt!
Ever since that goal of Sebastian Thill againt Madrid, I became a fan of him in particular. What a goal that was!
Thank you very much to cover our success story. May we win the qualifier-matches 🦁 Roude Leiw, huel se! 🇱🇺
Not may
Recently, they've become a strong team because they've been getting better gradually. Young, talented players have emerged because they invested in youth academies over the last ten years. As a result, lots of players from Luxembourg are now joining teams in the Bundesliga and Ligue 1.
Thanks for describing in written format what the video just said
They made a lot of partenariat with French and German football academies, and we know how good the formation is in France & Germany
ChatGPT ahh comment
Mainz 05 has a lot of Luxembourgers in their youth set up I believe
AI generated comment
I remember well our humiliating loss 0-1 to Luxembourg earlier, a symptom of Stephen Kenny's dysfunctional football but also showing how far the Luxembourgers have progressed. Cannot hate them, only love for these strong lads. Hopefully they may have chance to qualify for Euros 2024.
I remember during the Euro 2020 qualifiers Ukraine was in the group with Portugal, Serbia, Lithuania, and of course Luxembourg. The matches against Luxembourg were by far the toughest, first game required a 93 minute own goal for Ukraine to win 2-1. After the matches the UPL saw an influx of Luxembourgish players. Even now, during the war Olivier Thill signed for LNZ Cherkasy a newly promoted team. Ukraine qualified from that group undefeated, on 20 points, the only time I saw the boys really struggle more then they did vs Luxembourg was in a home match vs Portugal after Taras Stepanenko blocked a shot with his hip, it bounced into his arm, and Anthony Taylor ruled that a penalty + second yellow, before that the game was going relatively smoothly, especially if you consider the opponents.
Ukraine didn't take 6 points from their matches vs Luxembourg, we ESCAPED with 6 points from them, the boys from Luxembourg are 100% justified in feeling hard done by the fact that they didn't get a result in at least one of those games.
This is why I really like the nations league, while yes it clogs up the schedule for the big teams who just want to get on with it and think it below them, it really helps these smaller countries qualify for big tournaments, have the playing time and experience to get better, and to not go into games thinking they'll get destroyed 18-0, really hope they qualify
600,000 people? That's at least, twice less the population of an average city in my country, Nigeria. Big-ups to Luxembourg, getting the most out of the situation, unlike Nigeria.
Corruption will always hinder us.
So we dey here 😢
I can name multiple cities that nobody outside of Nigeria has heard of that are bigger than that 💀
Yes there better than Indonesia a country with 280 million
i can think of Chinese cities with 15x the population of Luxembourg that most people have never heard of
Note that this is still almost 2 times the population of Iceland. Who did play in a major tournament!
And in the middle of Europe, concentrated population and richer, while Iceland is a barren island in the middle of the ocean.
@@AelbertZero But could that play against them? Iceland being so isolated, I assume most Icelanders have 100% roots in Iceland. For Luxembourgish poeple, I guess it isn't rare to have a parent from Belgium/France/Germany. So maybe good players that could play for Luxembourg end up switching their national allegiance to the better national team?
@@raphduf25 not only that, but it’s wealth mean it is an attractive migration spot. the best ever luxembourg born player is… pjanic.
@@raphduf25That's a good point! At the end it is probably that just the worst players play for Luxembourg. However, they also have the opportunity to send your nationals to nearby nations clubs, plus also being able to develop grassroots footbal much more easily as all the population is concentrated in the same space. Imagine living outside the area of Reykjavik in a town of 500 people deep in an iceland fjord. Who do you play against?
And kicked out Engeland in Euro 2016.
Hi from Luxembourg 🇱🇺
As an England fan, Luxembourg was one of the countries i was rooting for in the qualifiers. I really hope they'll pull it off or Kazakhstan in the play offs. Both of them might probably make history for the first time
Finally! I'd been watching the qualifiers for the euros, and saw that Luxembourg had a real chance to qualify. Even if they don't, they're slowly developing a generation of young talented players who are playing across decent teams in Europe
This sounds like a crazy fm save
San Marino will forever be the biggest underdog.
You must not have heard about Gibraltar
Or Andorra... 🤔🙄
brothers it is actually Vatican let the Pope play
San Marino are also getting better too. A bit.
If it wasn't for the weird formation of Belgium, Luxembourg would've been almost double in size as the western region of Luxembourg was given to Belgium thus reducing their pool of talent. 🇱🇺
Greece would be heavy favourites to qualify. But just that Luxembourg are in with a chance is a sign of huge progress!
This is the TIFO I love. No talk about money or rumors just a good underdog story 🙌
They have young and upcoming talents coming through, great to see they've now invested in youth academies, really hope they qualify for euro 2024
Yay Tifo is talking about Luxembourg Football
Shout out to NYCFC legend Maxime Chanot, who is sorely missed in the five boroughs.
Luxembourg is one of my favourite respective nations ever and the nation's football is rising and I have been updated and watching their matches and league matches as well,good friends!!!LONG LIVE LUXEMBOURG AND LUXEMBOURG FOOTBALL!!!👍
Would love too see a video in regards to stutter penalty kicks. When did they start happening so frequently, the benefits of it to the takers and the negative impacts and unfairness of how it may seem to an opposing goalkeeper. I think it would make a good video seeing how common it is nowadays.
Honestly speaking, I like Luxembourg's honest way of developing football. Since they are small, they emphasise on grassroot approach. Many of the "underdogs" today are simply despotic, authoritarian states that try to manipulate and corrupt football, such as Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan with their corrupt oil money, which made Luxembourg's underdog status even more impressive to love for.
Yeah mate, every country outside of Europe or the EU is corrupt 😂
Spoken like a true white supremacist. Non whites aren't allowed to participate in football.
@@LaVaZ000 if that so then Japan, Ecuador, Croatia, Costa Rica have no meaning, lol.
This one is corrupt with tax evasion money
Football is still growing in Europe
Football began in Europe
The time that im watching this Luxembourg is losing 2-0 to Georgia
unfourtunatly 😮💨
I remember celebrating when we drew 0-0 against France in 2015… that was considered one of our biggest achievements up to that point
I wasn’t a fan of the Nations League idea initially, but it’s worked.
Luxembourg mentioned 🇱🇺🇱🇺🇱🇺🇱🇺
I've been to Luxembourg it's a beautiful country. And being from a football nation that is also small (Northern Ireland) we could learn a lot from how Luxembourg have changed their development. We have many highs and lows I think Northern Ireland is still too dependent on sending our youth to England where competition for spots is probably the most difficult in Europe. We should further develop our own league and send the youth further abroad. Unfortunately our assocation is so backwards and stuck in the past they are still patting themselves on the back for getting to euro 2016
Hello from Luxembourg 🇱🇺
Tournament MVP, performance of the tournament, and this was in reality the top 2.
Love videos like this!
What about the rise of Kazakhstan? They were once the laughing stock of Europe after their move from Asia, I know they're younger than Luxembourg but I would think it would be good video
Tifo I love the change in style and quality since past year ❤
Wait, which Luxembourg player has Indonesian roots? As an Indonesian, this is the first time hearing this and I am intrigued with it
David Jonathans, a young forward playing for Luxembourg and Bayern Munichs reserve team, on his fathers side.
@@Jojafox thank you so much! Wow, he was actually eligible to choose between Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Indonesia (because Indonesia has been chasing Indonesian-descent overseas players lately), but chose Luxembourg. Thanks once again!
2:30 onwards is comedy gold, unbelievable
Really interesting content❗👍
Football is a simple game and I think if you do the basics right you will be able to be competitive and sometimes cause a shock on a good day. We see it all over now in international football especially with the rise of nations like Japan, Korea, Qatar and Australia. I think this rise in competitiveness also explains the rationale behind the European super league, although the creators of that league say it is to fight against state clubs. You’ve now got players from minor football countries able to compete with players from the traditional football countries. Clever clubs see this, buy the players from the minor football countries and as a result can compete against the traditional elite of European clubs. An example being FC sheriff beating Real Madrid with a goal from a luxembourgish player. If clubs like Real Madrid and Manchester united don’t protect themselves against this new coming football world order (which I welcome), they won’t make any profits or have any revenue stability. I find the new uefa league champions league format interesting in that aspect. Some of the additional places in the format are granted to nations with a great performance in the previous editions of uefa competitions. There is great potential for nations like Luxembourg (still a low chance), Sweden, Norway and Denmark and Switzerland to shake things up if they have a great run for all their teams in the conference and europa league.
Awesome Video!
Iceland and Bosnia are just reminders of how far you can fall.
Iceland is a crazy story involving scandals
@@charliemilroy6497i think hitc sevens made a video on it
small countries sometimes get really good. iceland qualified for the world cup and uruguay and netherlands are pretty small if you look at a world map yet they are obviously big football nations.
luxembourg have made great steps and there are some pretty good players like barreiro and the goalkeeper. another team in europe that is quietly becoming really good is kazakhstan. they have been developing a lot in the last 10 years. keep an eye out for them
Nooo they lost 2-0 in the playoffs😕. Hard luck luxembourg. Another 4 years and you will qualify! Dont worry!
Let’s not forget that Sebastien Thill once scored a winner against Real Madrid…probably one of the greatest moments in Luxembourgish football to date
In the last qualifying final, North Macedonia🇲🇰 defeated Georgia🇬🇪 on its own field in Tbilisi 1:0.
Due to the pandemic regulations, Georgian government made a terrible decision and did not allow fans to the stadium. This created an even chances for both teams, so NM🇲🇰 earned a trip to the EU, that could be a first and historical tournament for our National team as well...
This time, the whole country 🇬🇪 is motivated to take revenge and we can't miss the second chance.
60k people will just go crazy and make an incredible atmosphere to support Georgia.
Both teams are missing key players (Kvaratskhelia is suspended due to yellow cards) but I believe that we have better team.
Soo, if you love football, I highly recommend to watch this game on Thursday 21.03...
🇬🇪🇬🇪🇬🇪🇬🇪🇬🇪
I’m so proud of the lads and what they have achieved recently, whatever the results of the playoffs, I’m happy to see how much football is progressing here in Luxembourg.
Now every year there are many u17 players being transferred to top european football academies and I can’t wait to see all this pay off! The next generation is going to be incredible!
Great vid
4:58 - for a moment I thought Vincent played for Sabah in Malaysia
We need a video about the rise of the Albanian national team! Interesting and unique football history. It'd be a good video to make to get ready for the upcoming Euros!
Well at least with the one-armed guy thered be a lesser chance of a handball
We need another type of international competition for smaller footballing nations in Europe because most will likely never make it to the euros for a long time
It can be considered that the level of football in Luxembourg is improving on the whole. The national team is playing better than ever before, and the domestic teams are also improving. The quality of football in the domestic arena has been accelerated by people such as Flavio Becca, a wealthy man from Luxembourg who invested significant capital into F91 Dudelange. The growth of domestic teams has ensured that there has been a greater investment of time and money into players who are Luxembourg nationals.
Alongside the growth of domestic teams, Luxembourg players are playing in the top leagues of surrounding nations. For example, Leandro Barreiro and Timothé Rupil play at FSV Mainz 05, Yvandro Borges Sanches at Borussia Mönchengladbach and Florian Bohnert at SC Bastia. This export of players to more competitive leagues should hopefully ensure that with these players developing their skills elsewhere, they can bring back the abilities they acquired to the national squad.
The future is bright for football in this tiny nation. The Luxembourg Football Federation has a 5-year strategy in place, with its main focus being on the development of top-tier football in the country as well as increasing the relevance of the sport itself for the people. Paul Phillip has stated that he is “very proud” of the “first overarching strategic plan in the history” of the Luxembourg Football Federation. With a history of upsets and losses, this could prove as their turning point.
31-0 is crazy
I love this country and its City! For me it was just a matter of time since the country developed so well that they could also do the same in national football 🇱🇺
Hi from Luxembourg🇱🇺
Can you do a video on the likelihood that Ireland is the next Belgium? They've learnt from the Grealish-Rice stuff and loads of academy players at top English academies are committing to ROI
They're not the next Belgium though.
Can't help thinking my FM save on FM22 started the surge 😎😂
You should be coach
This thumbnail might be the first time anyone has ever made Belgium look like a large country
Thumbnail makes Belgium look big
Georgia, Kazakhstan and Greece... those are all countries that each should represent a very tough challenge for Luxembourg. Gonna be very very hard
the key point is definitely the migration of young players to Europe rather than retain them in the country despite improvement of local teams. so football education should be ramped up at least from 12 years old so at least they were attractive for bigger European clubs to offer them a youth contract. but its hard for this to be prioritized in national policies so kudos to the football president to make it happen.
Yes, but the bar has been lowered for qualification has been lowered so much teams like Luxembourg can get in as a sort of participation ribbon.
Hey tifo football, why have you guys stopped making videos about tactics after big games
Do you think African football and Asian football could benefit from a nations league system?
i noticed their improvement when they beat ireland
15 of the current 25-man squad could be playing for another country, mostly either Portugal, Cape Verde, or one from the former Yugoslavia. The Icelandic team of 2016-18 was made up of Icelanders.
Should have made a video about Georgia, not this half-amateur team
These mothertruckers beat us as well 😂
Hello from the north. They beat us as well 😂
0:55 😂😂😂😂
On one hand, I gotta stand with my Georgian boys like our former captain Guram Kashia, on the other hand I hope our current player Mica Pinto can combine good performances for Luxembourg and Vitesse to keep us in the league.
Small country: has bad football team
FM players: 🎵Now this looks like a job for me🎵
I don't even know why, but I thought the video would be about Belgium 😂😂😂
Their Euro 1964 performance is even more impressive than it sounds. Back then, only four teams qualified, and Luxembourg beat the Netherlands 3-2 on aggregate to reach the final eight.
alright, as an NWSL fan you'd be surprised how far a one armed midfielder gets you
I'm sorry Mr Tifo but they are most definitely not 'Europe's biggest underdog'
I wish the Luxembourg national football team the very best of luck. I think the Red Lions will beat Georgia. However, I just can't see them getting past Greece who they'll probably face to qualify for Euro 2024. I hope I'm wrong though.
wait im curious who's the player with indonesian heritage??
One armed Midfielder!?
I would love to see Luxembourg 🇱🇺 in the Euro’s this Summer.
Song title. Please 🙏
To be fair tho the original population of Qatar is only about 350k, the vast majority of the people living in Qatar are basically foreigner's. They won 2019 & 2023 Asian Cup recently with no one's playing abroad. Correct me if I'm wrong x
But aren't they offering money/citizenship to players who were not born or have no link to Qatar? Might be wrong.
Vartar linked with up assistant and give three penalty in final ...Qatar No way they are qualify ing for world cup be happy that u got host cuz of bucks 😂😂😂😂
@@GG-zl3et I reckon two players from their last rooster, Roro and Lucas Mendes. They been playing in Qatar league since their 20's tho. As many countries do this days. The league itself is good, hope Luxembourg will do the same but improving their league
to say they are one of the worst team is quite unfair because we never heard they test themselves with average team in asia and oceania
I don’t know why these videos always have a really choppy frame rate but if it’s a stylistic choice it’s really not a good one
Pjanic was developed by the Luxembourg system, I dont know why this wasnt mentioned
I want to see Luxembourg in Euro 2024
Can you do a video about why the US territories have their own national teams? And why they are so bad? Also if they are good enough but have senior caps would they be eligible to play for the usmnt? For the usvi we have American passports I think some other territories are not automatically US citizens tho
No disrespect to luxembourg but lets not act like the players with the cape verde roots aren’t carrying them.
Mientras tanto China a pesar de tener la mayor población a nivel mundial no le importa el futbol y sigue sin trascender. Por su parte, no se puede negar que Luxemburgo ha logrado una mejora significativa ante la debacle otras selecciones como la de Bulgaria y la de Bosnia y Herzegovina.
One of the best in Europe, not really there are 24 teams in the Euros proper nowadays and Luxembourg would be the 24th best if they were to qualify and it is admitted that they are only qualifying as a lower team anyway, of about 55 teams they have gone from being about 52nd to 36th.
My friends are gonna be really confused, when drunk me brings up this useless information.
It’s because of the Cape Verde players in the team !!!
It would be awesome if Luxembourg gets to qualify for Euro 2024.
wouldve risen earlier if Miralem Pjanic had not declared for Bosnia instead.
They play well against other teams but Portugal always give them a heavy beating lol.
Im American but u watch Progres Niederkorn, a team in the Luxembourg league. It’s not bad football and you can watch the games for free! It’s still better than the MLS
MLS is ranked number 16 in the world rankings. Luxembourg is ranked 222.
@@gcgcgcg oh, I’m just talking about the quality.
It’s a no brainier, surely out of 600 thousand people you can find 11 that play football really well
Imagine how much talent countries like China and India have hidden somewhere
Loads up FM 💻
This little national side still have better chance of qualifying for international competitions than Haaland's Norway LMAO 🤣🤣🤣💀
Hope Luxembourg can enter world cup
Fast forward "just" 18 years