04.07.2017 Europa League Qualification Round 1 FC Progrès Niederkorn - Rangers FC Stade Josy Barthel Result: 2:0 (0:0) Attendance: 5,534 (about 1,500 guests) Click here for more photos
“Rangers! Niederkorn got Rangers!” We were so excited to know that Niederkorn would play Rangers in their first round of the Europa League quali and immediately reserved the evening for the game. We checked all the ticket information to make sure we didn’t miss the chance of getting tickets. That’s why we went to Esch last week so we could stop by their home ground, Stade Jos Haupert, to get tickets for the game. Just in case you didn’t know, Niederkorn were not allowed to play at the home because it didn’t meet UEFA’s requirement (too small, no separate away gate/block, etc), so they had to play at Luxembourg National Team’s home – Stade Josy Barthel.
When we go groundhopping, we also want to stay away from both sides of fans so we can get a whole picture. This time we knew Rangers would have the stand opposite to the main stand while the home fans will have the block M behind to goal, so we decided to go for block L – cheapest possible option.
With our tickets in hands, we started driving towards Luxembourg City at round 16:15 and found our place to park in front of the stadium short before 6pm. (Grrrr, parking is free after 6, so we had to pay 1€) We then had a little walk around the stadium and then had our homemade Korean Kimbap as our dinner. After the food nightmare at Fola Esch last week, we wouldn’t want to risk having cold shitty food again.
Something didn’t feel right when we saw the Niederkorn fan group entering the stadium through the block L entrance. We were in the Niederkorn fan block and it was impossible to sneak into other block. We tried to ask the steward in front of the gate but he only spoke french. Then we went to the ticket box and ask if we could switch to block M because we didn’t want to be with the fan group. Fortunately, the friendly staff was happy to help us, he brought us to another entrance and exchanged the tickets for us.
There was still an hour until the kick off and the stadium was still quite empty. We took our time to finish our Kimbap while Niederkorn fans were preparing for their little choreo – an P that looked like fried egg. Meanwhile, Rangers supporters and their hundreds of banners started to appear in their blocks.
The black and yellow Progrès Niederkorn lost only 1 goal to Rangers at Ibrox Stadium five days ago, which seemed to be still possible for Progrès to make a comeback at home. Being the fourth of the league last season, Progrès secured the last place to enter the first round of the Europa League qualification for Luxembourg, making it their seventh appearance in the European stage. Before today, they only scored one goal in previous six appearances and never won a game. Who would expect them to beat Rangers, and get through to the next round today? Not us, and probably not you too.
Luxembourg was Rangers’ first international away day since they went into liquidation, and we expected to see a lot of Rangers fans travelling with away with their team. But on the day, there were many, but not THAT many. As the fans started filling up the block where the ultras banner (UB – Union Bears) was hung, they started to sing along the music from the stadium speakers.
The Progrès fan group came with the same drums we saw at their home game last year, and as soon as they sang, we knew they had the same guy who sang choir too. ” *Boom, boom* AAAALLEZ PROGRES!” As the players entered the pitch, they stared to have a little bit of fun with their little choreography – lifting it up and down within a beat.
The away block chanted a little bit too – we heard a few chants that we always heard in Europe – but they weren’t loud at all. After about 30 minutes, we’d say they even went quiet. No hands in the air anymore. When I tried to find out what “UB” meant, I found a thread on a Rangers discussion forum where people argued about whether UB were helping the atmosphere at Ibrox – some say yes, some say no. People also argued whether they wanted to have “ultras”, I didn’t read them all though. But from what we saw, it seemed that UB couldn’t really help on that day.
On the pitch, nothing much happened in the first half. But Niederkorn definitely showed that they could fight back. The host created some chances, and were really close to score! The game only became thrilling in the second half – Niederkorn became more aggressive while Rangers tried to get an important away goal.
Rangers came really close when the ball was bouncing in front of Progrès’ goalie, the ball flew towards the goal, got blocked, and hit the crossbar. No goal. There were also few times that The Gers shot directly at the goalie. Finally at 66th minute, Progrès’ scored from a corner and made it 1:0! We joined people in our block to celebrate. Everyone started yelling ALLEZ; the Progrès fan group went louder and louder.
Ten minutes later, another corner – GOAAAAALLLL. Niederkorn were two goals up! If nothing would go wrong, they would be through to the next round for the first time in their history. Rangers didn’t want to let this happen, they knew they just needed one goal in order to kick Progrès out of the Europa League.
After two minutes of added time, the referee blew the whistle; the fans cheered as loud as the could – with Luxembourg flag; the players and staff ran onto the pitch to celebrated together. The players went to the Progrès block and celebrated with their fans. With thef yellow flares, it looked like Progrès had a huge fan group.
What a game. That’s football is about – that’s when football is exciting when underdog can also win. It wasn’t a good evening for the Rangers for sure. They expected themselves to be back in the group stage, but now they are out already in the first game back in Europe. Theresa May might want to know how they could leave Europe that fast.
Atmosphere wise, of course the home crowd had a good vibes because they were the better side. But we were quite disappointed with the Rangers’ fans, or we just expected too much. A friend wrote me and said “there aren’t that many Rangers in the stadium. I thought Rangers were big.” That’s what I thought too. They had a sell out last week at home, but only about 1,500 travelled to Luxembourg.