14th Match Day of BGL Ligue FC Progrès Niederkorn - FC Differdange Stade Jos Haupert Results: 1:2 (0:0) Attendance: 1.820 (1.200 Guests)
When we were searching for games we could go this weekend, we found that the winter break in Luxembourg would be over and the Ligue would start again, so we decided to spend the weekend to watch two games in Luxembourg.
The first game we visited was Progrès Niederkorn against FC Differdange, which is a local derby. Niederkorn is a part of Differdange in the southwest of Luxembourg. The city is an industrial area and is known for steel production. You wouldn’t be surprised to find out that most clubs in the first league are located near this working class area.
Both teams have been finishing in the league in the top four alongside last season’s champions Dudelange and Fola Esch. The four main contenders are also usual participants of European matches. However, Luxembourg doesn’t have a high ranking internationally, the league champions have to start from the second round of Champions League qualification; while 2nd to 4th place have to start form the very first round of Europa League qualification.
The top four teams are quite dominant in the league because of higher income from European games: FC Dudelange is currently leading the table with 34 points; followed by Differdange with same points, Fola Esch with 31 points and Niederkorn with 20 points. Only the forth place, which is also the last place to qualify for Europa League qualification round, is still reachable for teams up to about 7th place.
We didn’t expect much before the game as we knew that Luxembourg is not a big football country. There could be groups chanting or there could be none.
As we woke up to snow in the morning, we first checked whether the game would still take place. If took us a while to fine the right Facebook page of FC Differdange because the Luxembourg teams always have three names in the country’s three official languages: French, German and Luxembourgish. For Differdange, their names are Differdange, Differdingen and Déifferdeng respectively.
Luckily there wasn’t news about postponement, so our plans could still go on! We left home about two hours before kick off when it started snowing HEAVILY. The weather turned out to be better in southwstern Luxembourg though.
The tickets were all 10€ each, which we think was reasonable for a top-tier league. As we entered Stade Jos Haupert, the covered stand was directly on our right. We first went to the other side of the pitch to take some photos of the main stand. There was another small stand (basically just two steps of stairs) which was later “occupied” by the away fan group Iron Sons.
We were actually quite surprised with the turnout of the game – more than 1,800 people went to see the derby! Differdange’s Iron Sons showed up shortly before kick off and prepared a banner that wrote “Wou Ass Den H.E.N.G.” (Where is Henry Bossi) Henry Bossi was the former coach of Progrès, but he got into big problems with the new club lead which made the club to consider issuing Bossi a Stadionverbot (stadium injunction). But in the end, he was still allowed to attend the game this Saturday.
The away fans wore masks of Bossi’s face to show their support for him, even though he worked many years for their biggest rival. But that was all the support shown during the game from the away fans.
The home side had way less supporters, maybe only a third of the attendance were fans of Niederkorn. But there were still some banners in the home area; About three to four elderly supported their team with drums and a megaphone during the 90 minutes. The chants sounded more like a choir!
The game started quite hectic with a lot of fouls and yellow cards. In the first half, Niederkorn was doing well in attacking and tried to shoot the lead, but Differdange was defending very well. Besides countless challenges in the midfield, nothing much happened.
In the second half, Differdange started to be more aggressive and scored the first goal of the day. Progrès shot the surprising equaliser few minutes later.
Progrès could only blame themselves for losing three points to their rival as they fouled Differdange in the penalty area and they didn’t waste the chance.
Click here to see more photos from this game!
Six minutes added time was announced as Er Rafik, Differdange’s number nine, slapped a Niderkorn player’s face and pushed him back to the ground when he was trying to get up (and complain). All players on the pitch ran into each other and wanted to start a fight; It took about five minutes until everyone was cool again after Er Rafik received a red card.
However, there was nothing Progrès could do against the 10-men team with only limited minutes left. The Iron Sons celebrated the derby with small pyro and chants after the game was over.
By that time, our feet were already frozen so we ran back to our car, enjoy our hot tea and chocolate muffins that we prepared before the game knowing we would be cold and hungry!
We are going to spend the next day in Luxembourg too. We are quite sure there won’t be same turnout as today.
Update: The translation of the banner “Wou Ass Den H.E.N.G.” is “Where is Henry Bossi”, not “We are all Henry Bossi” as written in the previous version. Thanks for the correction from a Differdange supporter.