Red Lions suffer France defeat with heads held high

One of the hardest international windows is now underway to Luxembourg, who face two neighbouring giants, France and Belgium, in the space of four days.

The first of the two games ended in a 3-0 defeat at Metz’s Stade Symphorien, in front of a limited away crowd off the pitch, and with a string of unlucky sequences resulting in goals.

Randal Kolo Muani scored France’s opener shortly before half-time, from a deft header following Kylian Mbappé’s adept cutback. Due to injuries to Florian Bohnert, Mica Pinto and Lars Gerson, it was Eldin Džogović who made a rare appearance in the starting line-up. However, he struggled at times to cope with Mbappé’s trickery and speed on the left wing of France's attack.

The second half went by without the same suffocating dominance from the French team, and Luxembourg came close to scoring a few times, but eventually provided no sufficient threat to Mike Maignan’s goal. With twenty minutes remaining, Marseille’s wing-back Jonathan Clauss doubled the French lead with a well-struck long-range shot cannoning in off the crossbar. Goalkeeper Anthony Moris was left helpless as Clauss’ brilliant effort whistled into the net.

With the game largely decided, fresh Real Madrid star signing Mbappé left his mark on the game in the final minutes, with a goal scored after a costly mistake in Luxembourg’s build-up scheme. After a short period of Luxembourgish breakthrough, the Red Lions started to get more and more ambitious in their passing game from the back, but ultimately made an error that led to an unmissable opportunity for France’s captain.

Wounded physically as much as mentally, Luxembourg’s problems thus worsened ahead of the Belgium clash.

Another two injuries suffered by midfielders leave the team with only three players capable of playing in that department, as things stand. Mathias Olesen and Christopher Martins both played 90 minutes on Wednesday and will likely have to repeat the trick on Saturday, as Sébastien Thill and Mirza Mustafić both had to be substituted with medical issues.

Thill suffered a knock in the first half after which he signaled he could play on, but later had to be taken off as he failed to shake off his bruises. Mustafić then entered the pitch to make his senior Luxembourg debut (after being naturalised earlier this year, switching nationality from Bosnia & Herzegovina), but lasted less than ten minutes of continuous action before he himself fell to the ground with a dislocated shoulder. Disappointed as he was after such an unlucky first appearance, he had no choice but to come off.

On came Chris Philipps, the experienced Wiltz midfielder donning his nation’s shirt for the first time since 2019. Philipps is now the only alternative in Holtz’s 25-strong squad who is capable of playing in midfield (apart from Sofiane Ikene’s experiences at youth level), which makes him likely to start a game he was not even expected to be called up for: If we take into account already existing injuries from Olivier Thill, Vincent Thill and Timothé Rupil, and the fact Leandro Barreiro personally requested not to be summoned for the camp this time, Philipps’ chances of making the ideal Luxembourg squad under normal circumstances are usually slim, and the midfielder now has a golden opportunity to don the Red Lions shirt once more.