Luxembourg national football team

History

Luxembourg played their first ever international match on 29 October 1911, in a friendly match against France; it resulted in a 1–4 defeat. Their first victory came on 8 February 1914, also in a match against France, which they won 5–4.

The national side of Luxembourg competed in six Olympic football events between 1920 and 1952, and survived the preliminary round twice (in 1948 and 1952). In between, Luxembourg started participating at qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup, but as of 2014 they still never qualified.

Starting in 1921, the Luxembourg national A-selection would play 239 unofficial international matches until 1981, mostly against other country's B-teams like those of Belgium, France, Switzerland and West Germany, as well as a team representing South-Netherlands.

After their last Olympic tournament in 1952, the national team also started playing in qualifying groups for UEFA European Championships, but could not reach the major European tournament end stages. The only time that the team was close to qualify was for a European or World Championship was for the Euro 1964. In the first qualification round they defeated the Netherlands with a score of 3–2 on aggregate after two matches. A Dutch newspaper commented this stunt after the second match with "David Luxembourg won with 2–1 [against Goliath Netherlands]". In the round of eight, Luxembourg and Denmark fought for a spot in the final tournament. The winner was decided after three matches; Denmark was the winner with a total score of 6–5.

When the national team does win a competitive match, they are often celebrated by national media and fans, as was the case after a 2–1 win against Switzerland in 2008.

Uniform

Traditionally, the badge on Luxembourg's team outfit displays a shield very similar to Luxembourg's lesser coat of arms, a red lion on a white-blue striped background – hence the team's nickname Red Lions. In modern times, the team played home games in entirely red strips, in accordance with their nickname, and wore white as away colour.

Home stadium

The Luxembourg national team normally plays its home matches at the Stade Josy Barthel in Luxembourg City, the national stadium of Luxembourg. At this location, the national team played 235 games by August 2015, including unofficial games. It is also used for rugby union and athletics.

Originally called Stade Municipal after its construction in 1928–1931, it was entirely rebuilt in 1990. Since July 1993, it has carried the name of Josy Barthel, the 1500m gold medalist at the 1952 Olympics and Luxembourg's only Olympic gold medal winner. The stadium is also home to the biggest athletics club in the country, CAL Spora Luxembourg. The spectator capacity is 8,000; some seats are under cover, some in the open air.

Management

The following managers have been in charge of Luxembourg's national squad:

Current staff

The crew that guides the Luxembourg national team includes following members:

Players

In 2004, the Luxembourg Football Federation selected Louis Pilot as their Golden Player, Luxembourg's greatest player of the past 50 years.

Current squad

The following 23 players were called up for the friendly and 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Netherlands on 13 November respectively.
Caps and goals as of 10 October 2016 after the match against Belarus.

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the Luxembourg squad during last 12 months.

^PRE Preliminary squad.

Previous squads

Most capped players

As of October 10, 2016.

Minor tournaments

Results and forthcoming fixtures

As of August 2015, the Luxembourg national team played 353 official games which resulted in 25 wins, 41 draws and 287 losses, with 205 goals for and 1004 against.

Recent results and fixtures are as follows: