23th match day of Luxembourg BGL Ligue CS Fola Esch - FC Differdange Stade Émile Mayrisch Result: 1:1 (0:0) Attendance: 712 (about 300 away fans)
We didn’t plan much for the long weekend but football. After a nice afternoon at the Kaiserlinde on Saturday, we planned to go to two more games in Luxembourg.
We spent the morning in the garden under the enjoyable sunshine, appreciating the nice weather after getting a cold the day before. Then we left Elversberg to Luxembourg at about 2pm.
The stadium of Fola Esch, Stade Émile Mayrisch, is located in Esch-sur-Alzette of the southwest of Luxembourg, right above the boarder with France. It was a nice (and seemed rich) area of Esch. The road outside the stadium would turn into one-way only so cars could park on one side of the road. So we got our car parked, and walked downwards to the stadium.
After paying 10€ each for the tickets, we entered the stadium to look for food first! The best part of watching Luxembourger football is about the baguette! As always, the most crowded place inside the stadium in Luxembourg is always in front of the pub. We noticed the Iron Sons, the main fan group of Differdange, were already there to have a few drinks.
The TV inside the pub was showing the last two laps of F1 Russian GP. We joined few people to watch the race as Vettel was chasing Bottas for the first place. I guess everyone was rooting for Vettel inside the pub, so when it was clear that Bottas was going to win the race with few corners left, people shook their heads and left. We did the same too.
Next to the bar was the main stand, which we only up for few minutes to take some pictures. We were seated on the opposite of the main stand, simply because the sun was shining over there! It has been a long time since we could enjoy a game under sunshine.
Fola and Differdange were the third (49 points) and first (55) in the league respectively before the game. Both teams still have the chance to become to league champions of the season, but if Fola lost this game, they would be out of the title race.
With five minutes until kick off, the Iron Sons slowly marched from the bar to the stand. As usual, they hung a big banner with the group’s name next to the pitch and stood behind it. On that day, they were pretty quiet. No chants, no singing at all.
The stand where we were at was still under construction. Fola had to expand their stands so it could meet the UEFA requirement to host teams in Europa League qualifiers(or even Champions League, if there was a chance). They would have to play at the national stadium near to the Luxembourg city until the expansion is complete.
In the first half, we didn’t pay much attention to the game because we spent most of the time chatting about Hong Kong football. Recently I found that football in Luxembourg is comparable to Hong Kong. Both countries are small and football is not that big. There is also no big “fanscene” in both places, except when the national teams play.
Hongkongers are trying to push for a “fan culture” in local football because they think Hongkongers have to support Hong Kong teams, and the only way to show your support is to support in an “ultras” style. And for Luxembourge, located in the middle of Europe, and connected directly to Germany, Belgium and France, their fan culture is nothing like their neighbourhood countries. Anyway, we spent the whole first half to discuss the fans and stuff, and wonder how fans in Hong Kong will be like in the next few years.
We turned our focus back to the pitch in the second half. (Oh, did I mention nothing happened in first half?) But we had to say that it was pretty boring. The game was slow with not many chances. There were few more yellow cards though, and of course, a red card was inevitable. A player of Fola was sent off at 75 minutes. At the moment, I had a feeling that the home team would find a chance to open the score sheet.
And I was right. Fola scored at the 80th minute! There weren’t many people who celebrated, but we found that people who celebrated were those in the VIP section (a few people were wearing suits!). We thought OK, now it would be interesting. As expected, Differdange equalised at the 90+2 minutes and saved the hope to challenge the title.
The competition between the top three teams in the league is still quite exciting. Fola will play against Dudelange in two weeks, and that will probably decide the champions of the season!