Aseismic event will hit Luxembourg's football scene if the national team win in Georgia today and repeat the -trick next Tuesday against Greece or Kazakhstan.
The country will prepare to lose a trademark part of its football scene because Paul Philipp, the president of its football federation, will appear live on television to shave off the moustache he has sported for more than 40 years. Should it come to pass, Philipp will probably navigate a whirlwind of emotions and conclude that the ordeal was worth it.
That is because Luxembourg, ranked 85th in the world by Fifa, stand two victories from a place at Euro 2024, a statement that would once have resembled fantasy. At the start of the qualifiers their previous 56 matches on that stage had yielded 15 points; attempts to reach the European Championship or World Cup have frequently finished winless or pointless and, while not in the San Marino bracket, for decades they were regarded as one of the continent's smallest fry.
Now Luxembourg has football fever. Big screens and public viewings will shoot up all over the grand duchy, whose population of 660,000 has rarely had a chance to enthuse this heavily over sporting success, in time for the playoff first leg in Tbilisi.
Denne historien er fra March 21, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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Denne historien er fra March 21, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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