It is the greatest achievement for a club in the Grand Duchy, one of the smallest countries in Europe, and that has a semi-professional practice of this sport

Watching amazing competitions like Champions League, Europa League, Libertadores, or Sudamericana is a luxury. However, for the story to be complete, the other side of the coin is needed, that of small teams that manage to make history.

Leer en español: ¡Histórico! Luxemburgo jugará la Europa League gracias al F91 Dudelange

Nobody forgets the feats of Leicester City in the Premier League or the Chapecoense in the Sudamericana, both in 2016, although the second ended in tragedy. This year, the modest club F91 Dudelange of Luxembourg has achieved something historic for the dukedom: to qualify for the group stage of the Europa League.

"Union make force"

According to the Argentine Clarin, the story began almost three decades ago, when in the city of Dudelange, Luxembourg, three clubs decided to join in one team for their economic problems: US Dudelange and Stade of the 3rd division and the Alliance Dudelange of the 2nd division. They took the place of this last one with the name of F91 Dudelange.

From that moment on everything was successful for them. The critical stage had been left behind; in a year, they had achieved the promotion to the first division and in less than a decade the national title. Now, it has in its record 14 leagues and 7 cups. The team and Luxembourg football in general needed to stand out internationally. A dream that now becomes a reality thanks to the F91 Dudelange.

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The final match took place in Transylvania, where the Luxembourgers beat Romanian Cluj FC 3-2, after a 2-0 first-leg victory in favor of the Dudelange, according to Marca.

On the way, they left other dream clubs like Drita and Legia Warsaw, before facing the Cluj. However, the story just begins, because the difficult thing is not only to reach the final phase, but to play a good role.

From now on everything is gain for them, occupying a place in group F that, according to information from the EFE agency, complete the Olympiacos clubs of Greece, the Spanish Betis and the Italian Milan, a task not at all easy for the Luxembourgers.

In this regard, the coach Dino Topmöller said: "what this club has just achieved is truly incredible, my players had a fantastic performance throughout this classification, they never bargained during training and showed great character in front of the most valued opponents. and experienced, they were supportive, humble and ambitious, they deserve this award because they demonstrated to the end that it was possible to realize our dream", according to information from Luxemburger Wort.

Which team should you follow?

The great feat of the Dudelange has been possible thanks to the German coach Dino Toppmöller, who according to the Clarin has relied on Serbian defender Milan Bisevac, former Paris Saint-Germain player, Lyon and Lazio, midfielders Marc-André Kruska and Danel Sinani , in addition to striker David Turpel.

Although the club of Luxembourg does not have Latin American players, it will face several of them: in the Betis they play the Brazilian Sidnei, the Mexican Andrés Guardado, the Paraguayan Antonio Sanabria, and the Argentine Giovani Lo Celso.

In the Milan, the Uruguayan Diego Laxalt, the Argentines Lucas Biglia, Mateo Musacchio, Gonzalo Higuaín and José Mauri, besides the Colombian Cristian Zapata. Finally, in the Olympiacos play the Brazilian Guilherme dos Santos and the Colombian Felipe Pardo.

The duchy's football has grown in recent years, Marca newspaper highlights that in 2017 the football of Luxembourg ascended 70 places in the FIFA ranking, in addition to only one lost match of the 4 disputed so far in 2018.

Quite an achievement for a country of almost 600,000 inhabitants and accustomed to wealth, which has based its achievements on a sport effort rather than its economic power as do leagues like Qatar or China.

LatinAmerican Post | Luis Liborio
Translated from "¡Histórico! Luxemburgo jugará la Europa League gracias al F91 Dudelange"

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