Matchday 9 review

Union mascot proves lucky charm en route to victory

Amid a disappointing start to the 2023/24 after last season’s fourth-place finish, some in the Union Titus Pétange fanbase might have been thinking if they are only getting the long-deserved reality check their overachievement over the previous campaign destined them for. Despite the injury of captain and main attacking threat Artur Abreu, it feels like the current squad could still do better than the eight points they had accumulated over the first eight matches so far.

Heading into a home clash against Mondercange with only three points in their three games since the international break, there was only one brief source of excitement for the Pétangeois: a new signing the club had been hinting at on their social media platforms, to be revealed at half-time on the pitch during the Fan Day programme the club had planned for the day.

As many had suspected originally, the “signing” turned out to be a new lion mascot for Union, revealed during local hip hop artist BC One’s live performance on the pitch at the break. Luckily, the audience was in a good mood and easy to be won over, given the hosts were already up by three goals courtesy of Kempes Tekiela and Jonathan Benteke (brother of former Liverpool and Aston Villa striker Christian), who scored a brace from close range.

The unveiling ceremony appeared not to have broken Union’s rhythm, either. Minutes after game restarted, UTP’s Kyrgyz international forward Kai Merk fired home the fourth, which made it Union’s biggest win since 9 October, 2022, when they ended up putting five past Victoria Rosport.

The win propelled UTP to ninth place from the drop zone, and they are now a single point behind Sunday’s opponents. Mondercange went into the September international window in second place, from four wins in five games, but have since gone on a four-game winless streak including a 6-0 rout to Swift Hesper before the embarrassing 4-0 to Union.

Many expected UTP to keep challenging for Europe and Mondercange to be languishing near the relegation zone before the season kicked off. Although the teams moved in totally opposite directions from what was predicted, it looks like the results are slowly balancing themselves out and both clubs will be back where their respective squads and managers would place them realistically.

No reward for relentless Käerjéng and Fola

In the majority of BGL Ligue seasons to date, a clear sign of whether any relegation fight would be playing out throughout the season was determined early on. In some of the more exciting editions, the bottom half of the table was packed until the very last weeks – last year belongs here, with Hostert and Etzella retaining their chances of survival until the tail end of the campaign, albeit they didn’t go down in a particularly dramatic fashion either. On most occasions, though, it was easy to tell which team(s) hardly looked like even putting up a fight.

This year, a five-point gap has already opened up behind Racing Union for the two automatic relegation places: Käerjéng and Fola have registered only one win each, and have started all their games as (justified) underdogs so far. It appeared this week might widen the gap above the bottom two even further, as UNK travelled to last season’s champions Swift Hesper, while the Eschers were also playing away from home, against the best team in the calendar year 2023, Progrès Niederkorn.

It would have been fair to predict a double-digit haul against the two table-trailers on Sunday facing the two most lethal and in-form attacks in the league. However, all things considered, the day was closer to being a success than an undeniable failure.

Käerjéng were perhaps the pick of the two teams as they managed to hold Hesper to a goalless draw, which speaks heroics about their defence in itself. As expected, the title defenders controlled the game right from the start, getting their first chance within a minute and keeping a grasp on the proceedings. Regardless of their attacking opportunities and many technically gifted players capable of splitting the most dogged defences in the league, though, Käerjéng stood firm.

Youth international goalkeeper Noah Scheidweiler once again proved why his future is probably lying elsewhere, at a club with serious ambitions (quite possibly in the professional world). His saves were needed numerous times to keep Hesper at bay, whose attacking players overcame little resistance from the rest of Käerjéng’s defensive structure.

Fola’s encounter against Progrès started after the other games had already ended – the UNK match conceivably showing the bottom-placed young team the perfect example of how to see out a game where the team is heavily unfavoured to win against experienced, prolific stars at this level.

The only caveat: Fola manager Stefano Bensi never had anything like that on his mind. A big advocate of proactive, vertical passing game, it was guaranteed he would never send out a roster designed to kill off any entertainment and chances of seeing quality football, narrow-mindedly resigned to being toyed with.

The approach showed itself on the scoreline after 20 minutes already – but not in the best light. Progrès were already two goals up by then, after some elite pieces of finishing from Omar Natami and Belmin Muratović. Although former Luxembourgish national team striker Michael Omosanya managed to pull one back against the run of play before half-time, the defence continued to look shaky and the Wasps didn’t look like slowing down.

In hindsight, Fola were unfortunate not to grab a point either way. Shortly before the hour mark, long-serving defender André Ferreira scored an unlucky own goal, which Fola did have an answer to, in Ilyas Jeridi’s converted penalty, but the equaliser didn’t come.

3 points in 8 games until the October international break suggests something has to change, and quickly so, but with funds not available to terminate Stefano Bensi’s contract, a change at the helm isn’t expected. The worst case scenario, as things stand, is the country’s oldest club not making up their 7-point gap to Racing and thus falling to the Ehrenpromotion for the first time since 2004/05.

Five winless, five unbeaten between the two breaks

Only four games have been played since the last two-week hiatus in the league schedule, which can really break the momentum of a team, as has been demonstrated to good effect already.

Swift Hesperange followed up a middling start with a major bounce back, scoring 10 goals over the four games, including their rampant 6-0 humiliation of Käerjéng. Rosport also saw a vast upturn in their fortunes, with three consecutive wins in the last three fixtures, which they hope they’ll be able to build upon in their quest to build a stable top-half team.

On the other hand, Jeunesse Esch and Strassen have claimed a combined zero wins from the eight games they’ve played, which will definitely disappoint the respective boards chasing a European place or a good fight to be near those places. Instead, Jeunesse are finding themselves in the relegation playoff zone.

The early-season optimism at newly-promoted Schifflange might be slightly fading away, too, after two draws and two losses since the resumption. They are still some out of any relegation conversation and it is obviously early doors, but the latest set of games have showed many of us why we should always treat the opening few results with a pinch of salt, without exception.

As always, the games’ live commentaries, highlights and full video footage are all available on RTL.lu’s Live Arena hub.