Matchday 17 review

Luisi’s purple patch

Jeunesse Esch winger Toni Luisi is arguably playing one of the best months of his playing career so far. Starting February with a narrow loss to Rosport, his team have now bounced back to win two of their last three games, getting four places away from the relegation zone in the process.

Luisi has been at the forefront of Jeunesse’s efforts in securing safety with a convincing run of form lately, scoring in the closing stages of consecutive games against Wiltz 71 and Fola Esch respectively.

Last week, he tucked away Jeunesse’s fifth against a shaky Wiltz side in a game that had been a no-contest for much of the afternoon. His last-gasp effort did ensure a three-goal cushion between the teams but the result was hardly hanging in the balance. Not so much like this time around.

Escher derbies are generally the most anticipated events in the entire domestic football schedule, one of a select few match-ups that have the potential to generate a crowd of a thousand. This time, 757 spectators turned up and stayed throughout in the pouring rain to watch a heated encounter unfold between the teams, and to be ultimately decided by Luisi’s 88th-minute strike past the goalkeeper.

Fola Esch had been putting up a fight until that fateful moment, playing on the front foot in front of an expectant Stade Émile Mayrisch crowd who hadn’t had the chance to experience a derby victory since early 2022. Chances by Diallo and Quinol went begging in the first half, while Jeunesse also had their moments in the game but typically few and far between.

The second half brought about some changes, mostly owing to a tiring Fola squad and a Jeunesse attack trying to increase the pressure on the hosts to varying degrees of success. The breakthrough came two minutes from the end, when Luisi connected to an Ahmed Mogni through ball and took the opportunity to score a vital goal, leaving the defenders no chance to clear his shot. Despite Andrea Deidda’s red card only one minute later, Fola found no way back into the game.

Luisi’s goal was therefore worth three points on Sunday, but might turn out to hold even greater relevance come the end of the season. With a congested bottom half of the table, the two extra points Jeunesse gained this matchweek will be enough to put them ahead of some of their direct competitors for the meantime. All while arch rivals Fola are feeling the heat more than ever, being six points off the next-lowest placed team on the table, Schifflange ’95.

Although Jeunesse Esch had their eyes set on more ambitious goals than staying up, and the new signings took a fair while to acclimatise, Luisi’s goal could be what decides the fate of both the Escher clubs for the whole year.

Star-studded Hesper and Progrès chase top two

Reigning champions Swift Hesperange started the new year in a turbulent state, losing both their on-pitch leaders to a well-reported salary payments row with the club’s board, resulting in a decision to place the disobedient squad members into a so-called ‘loft’. Manager Roland Vrabec had his options drastically reduced. The team were off their pre-season objective of retaining the title too, their faint efforts looking like a mere glimmer in unbeaten Differange’s rear-view mirrors.

Enter Raphael Holzhauser. The Austrian playmaker arrived from OH Leuven in Belgium as one of the biggest coups of the season made by any Luxembourgish team, and he was quick to get the team back on track: on a one-man mission, he scored a brace (including a mesmerising free-kick) in the 3-3 draw against Union Titus Pétange last week, and he followed it up with another double, this time against Victoria Rosport.

Holzhauser pounced on a defensive slip-up ruthlessly to give his side an early lead on Sunday, while his second goal came just after the hour mark, from a composed tap-in that owed much to Luca Ferrara’s phenomenal run down the right wing to provide the assist.

This time, the club prevailed too, unlike last week. The win will keep Hesper in third place, narrowly ahead of Progrès Niederkorn on goal difference. Niederkorn’s own efforts were immensely boosted by another big-name signing, Jonathan Schmid.

The former Freiburg and Hoffenheim player has never been a goalscorer over his career, and that is unlikely to change in Luxembourg. However, his set-piece technique and crossing ability already looks tailor-made for a squad full of attackers with adept heading skills and impressive physical traits.

At Niederkorn’s latest game against newly-promoted Schifflange, Schmid provided his side’s first two assists, both from deep free-kicks, for finishes from Antoine Mazure and Issa Bah. Schmid’s rapid and overwhelmingly successful impact underlines the smart business strategy from Progrès in recognising that they needed a creator rather than a scorer in a season where even a Top 3 finish looks far from guaranteed.

After the departure of Belmin Muratović and the early retirement of eager free-kick taker Emir Bijelić, the Wasps have their newest midfield maestro who makes up for all the qualities they had lost during the winter.

FCD stay unbeaten after tight contest

Few would have predicted FC Differdange to go the whole autumn season of 2023/24 without losing. Those who did, though, were undoubtedly just as sure they would coast through February as well afterwards, given the (lack of) strength of schedule after the restart.

Racing Union and Käerjéng games at home, with a trip to Mondercange sandwiched in between them, looked far from the most strenuous run of games a team has had to endure in the BGL Ligue. The winter arrivals of Christian Schoissengeyr and Artur Abreu also showed that the team takes their title challenge very seriously and look suitably prepared to carry on from where they had left off in December.

Despite all of the above, the unbeaten streak almost ended abruptly last Sunday. Mondercange opened the scoring at home with a brilliantly taken header from Anasse Bekhaled in the second half, and for most of the game it looked like the league leaders would have no sufficient response to that.

After both teams eventually going down to ten men following the dismissals of Gianluigi Pitisci and Juan Bedouret respectively, FCD found a way to scrape an equaliser, courtesy of Brazilian midfielder Ulisses, and keep their invincible status until at least next week.

Only three times in the 21st century did a club start with 17 games unbeaten in the BGL Ligue before FCD’s current attempt. Dudelange did so twice in a row between 2015 and 2017, while Swift Hesper managed it last year. Although none of those sides kept their flawless record for the whole season, they were all crowned champions, highlighting just how crucial those steady early-season foundations are to any chance of a final triumph.

As Differdange are chasing their first top flight title across their 21-year history, some bumps on the road were to be expected. Regardless of the two dropped points in Mondercange, though, they are still in first place with 10 wins and 7 draws from their first 17 games, which must give them plenty of confidence and enthusiasm as they are entering the home stretch.

Around the pitches

UNA Strassen beat Union Titus Pétange at a top-half clash thanks to a late decider from Nicolas Perez. The journeyman striker fired Strassen to 5th place with his latest goal, while UTP are directly behind them, two points away.

Marisca Mersch won a vital six-pointer away in the Éislek, defeating Wiltz 71 by a solitary goal. Although both teams seemed far from their strongest selves, Lamine Fall’s decider puts Marisca just above their opponents on the table, both of them narrowly situated outside of the relegation playoff zone for now.

F91 Dudelange kept their great start to Claudio Lombardelli’s managerial stint going by recording a 3-0 win in the capital, away at Racing Union Luxembourg. The match was overshadowed by on-pitch protests from the Racing hierarchy demanding infrastructural improvements from the city council, having been under threat of a forced closure of all club facilities due to poor condition.

UN Käerjéng escaped the automatic relegation spots with a win against US Mondorf. Idir Boutrif’s brace carries the team above Schifflange and Mondercange, with the chances of survival now seeming very realistic. Mondorf’s mid-table position remains unchanged.

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