14th Match Day of BGL Ligue Jeunesse Canach - Union Titus Pétange Stade Rue de Lenningen Result: 0:4 (0:2) Attandence: 120
So, a day after the Differdange derby, we went to Luxembourg again to watch another first league game in Canach, a little village just about the River Moselle.
The drive was very simple: exit Trier, follow the Moselle towards the south;The view was really nice, with uncountable Vineyards along the Moselle, with Germany on our left and Luxembourg on the right, just across the river.
The stadium is located just outside of Canach in the east, after passing Lenningen. As you can tell by the name of the stadium, Stade Rue de Lenningen, which you could translate it to Stadium on the Road of Lenningen, the stadium is at just in the countryside.
We were not sure if it could really be called a stadium; It looked more like a ground where we went to a game in Kreisliga in Germany. A neighbourhood ground with only short fences around the pitch, no seats around the ground, yet there was a bar with a huge TV showing live broadcast of Bundesliga.
Just when we almost forgot we were at a Ligue 1 game, we arrived at the entrance and bought tickets for 10€ each. We’d say the price is fair, but we would expect better condition of the ground for a first league team. With the sun shining above us, everything looked much nicer on the little hills around the area and also a small river behind the stadium.
On the other side of the entrance, in front of the halfway line between the players’ benches, we found our “VIP” place to look forward to Jeunesse Canach against Union Titus Pétange.
These two teams were both freshly promoted from the second league this season. Jeunesse Canach were founded in 1957 in Canach. Without huge financial support, the team competed mainly in lower leagues until 2005 when the promoted to second league and started to become a little more competitive. However, this season does not look good for them so far as they are currently in the relegation zone.
Union Titus Pétange was founded in 2015 after a meger of the two former second Ligue teams CS Pétange and FC Titus Lamadelaine, which were both struggling in the division for many years. Thanks to a co-operation with the Portugese first Lige club Vitória Guimarães, they managed to build a better line-up than many of the other teams.
This season, they have been doing well as a promoter. Perhaps that was why half of the attendance on the day cheered for Pétange when they scored. The city is at the southwest of Luxembourg, connected with the boarder of Belgium and France.
Atmosphere? No banners were seen, no scarves were waved and no chants were sung during the whole game. We couldn’t expect much from freshly promoted teams who don’t have a fan base anyway. We were not surprised to learn that this game had the lowest attendance of the week.
The game was also clear and dominant: Pétange were attacking during the whole 90 minutes while Canach could only defend around their penalty area and play a few counter strikes. The guests secured their deserved lead with a double strike in 31st and 33rd minute. It did not no harm even they missed a penalty short before the break.
In the second half, Canach tried to play more offensive, but still couldn’t create chances. With another two goals, Union left Canach with three points as the fourth of the Ligue where a place in Europa League will be reachable.
It started to get darker and windy when the game was over, we went back to the parking lot that was few steps again from the ground and drove home.
Now we can finally look forward to another weekend; The Regionallia Südwest is going to start again!