This week’s European qualifiers saw the ignominy of both Europa Conference League contestants from Luxembourg getting eliminated at the first hurdle. At least F91 Dudelange are marching through for now, and next week, Racing Union will join them on the international stage.
Back-to-back F91 victories leave no doubt
F91 Dudelange travelled to the Albanian capital of Tirana after an overall convincing display last week, which also resulted in a 1-0 aggregate lead for the Luxembourgers.
The contest remained tight in the second leg too, and at half-time the teams could only be separated by the finest of margins.
Soon enough after the interval though, F91 kicked on, and scored a magnificent goal from distance, courtesy of Filip Bojić.
The goal only added extra motivation for the Dudelange players who weren’t intimidated by the atmosphere in front of the 6,000-strong crowd.
The second goal of the day (from Dejvid Sinani) effectively decided the tie, and although Tirana had an answer for that one towards the end, it was too little too late.
F91 are thus progressing to Qualification Round 2, where they can be optimistic about their chances against Pyunik Yerevan from Armenia.
Half-success from Differdange
Having drawn the away game 1-1 with Olimpija Ljubljana last week, FC Differdange had reasons to feel confident ahead of their rematch at the Stade Municipal.
As it happened, it followed a similar script to the first leg, with Differdange getting an opener early on – this time, it was defender Juan Bedouret who scored.
As the game wore on, Olimpija could ramped up the pressure a little bit and the Slovenians definitely looked better at saving their energy for the latter stages of the game.
Unluckily for FCD, the equaliser came before the end, just when it looked as though they could weather the storm.
The extra time was a generally dull period in the game - as it usually is - except for one unfortunate moment, when Goran Milović scored an easily avoidable close-range shot to put the Slovenians ahead.
There was no way back for Differdange who are left to wonder what could have been after exiting the competition with their heads held high.
Fola’s worrying demise continues
A defeat to a Sammarinese opponent can be hard to move on from, but Fola Esch had to focus on their preparation for the away game all week, in order to truly put that result behind them, and turn the tie on its head.
Although the squad has worsened over the summer and one cannot ignore last week’s embarrassing scoreline, the players stayed calm, confident and hungry for revenge.
Maybe the mindset was ideal, but the line-up itself still looked weak from the start. The team couldn’t prepare for Europe properly in terms of summer activity (unlike teams behind them) and it showed.
The most striking part was that Tre Fiori’s advantage felt justified. Fola failed to create sufficient chances to get themselves in a better position, while Tre Fiori converted two of their chances before half time.
It proved to be a wake-up call for Fola Esch, who then managed to switch to a higher gear and dominate the second half completely, but they still lacked the end result.
Partly thanks to Tre Fiori’s brilliant goalkeeper Alessandro Semprini, and partly due to our own sloppy defending, the opponents extended their lead to 3-1 and held on to it for the remainder of the game. With this result, the Luxembourgish club with the most favourable draw crashed out of the competition over two games they're unlikely to forget anytime soon.
