This is how Luxembourg’s miracle was built, which can culminate in the giant sensation of the European Championship qualifiers – Sweden’s disaster is complete without five

The Finnish men’s national football team will play on Tuesday 17 October. Against Kazakhstan at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. The events will be followed from 18:15 on TV2, Areena and ‘s website.

Portugal, which collected only wins and 21 points in the European football qualifying group J, has already secured its ticket, but there is a fierce battle for the second place.

Slovakia is second with 13 points. On Monday, it will face the big surprise of the qualifiers, Luxembourg, which is lurking on eleven points. Bosnia-Herzegovina has nine points, Iceland has seven.

All teams have three games remaining, including Monday night.

With a population roughly the size of Helsinki, Luxembourg has emerged as a football country to be taken more seriously in recent years.

Just twenty years ago, teachers and bank clerks played in Luxembourg’s national team, and in 2006 the team was generally considered the weakest in Europe. It was among the last in the Fifa ranking, ranked 195/208.

Ten years ago, the country started investing in players getting into the professional leagues.

– We had to get players to France, Belgium and Germany. Now we have 25 men in the national team and about 95 percent of them play in the professional leagues, CEO of the Luxembourg Football Association Paul Philip said two years ago.

According to Philipp, the best junior players are gathered at the association’s training center, where they live during the games.

– When they are 16-17 years old, we start talking with the Belgian and French professional teams in our network.

With the League of Nations, the team has been able to regularly face teams of its own size, which also explains the improved performances. At the end of the debut season 2018–2019, the country rose from the D-League to the C-League.

In 2017, Luxembourg played a 0-0 draw against France in the World Cup qualifier. In the 2022–2023 Nations League, the country finished second in its C-League group behind Turkey. The good grips have raised the country’s Fifa ranking tremendously, and it is now number 85 on the men’s list.

Union boss Philipp has to topple the most ardent supporters these days.

– We are like a small village. We will never be world champions. Our problem is to explain to the supporters that we are not able to develop at the same pace as in recent years.

This year, Luxembourg has lost only twice to Portugal in its European qualifying group, and has won once against Liechtenstein, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland, and has drawn with Iceland and Slovakia.

The Luxembourger has scored the most goals in the EC qualification three times Danel Sinaniwho represents the top team of the second Bundesliga, St. Paul, at the club level.

After Monday’s important match in Slovakia, Luxembourg will still face Bosnia and Herzegovina in the November qualifying window, as well as the group’s throwing bag, Liechtenstein.

Sweden in trouble

Sweden, playing in Group F, threatens to be excluded from the European Championships for the first time in 27 years. It was also left behind from last year’s World Cup.

Sweden is third in its group, seven points behind second-placed Austria. Sweden has three matches to play, Austria two. Group leader Belgium has already secured a place in the European Championships.

In their previous match in September, Sweden suffered a 1–3 loss to Austria. The Swedish players were gloomy after the match.

– We have to look in the mirror. We conceded goals far too easily, Swedish captain Victor Lindelöf said.

– This was a cold shower. It looks really dark regarding the European Championships, Albin Ekdal comment.

Read also: Sweden’s seams for the European Championships less than one percent, the head coach who lost his temper still received soft treatment from the media: “Should I resign now?”

The venue is no longer in Sweden’s own hands. If Austria beats Azerbaijan in the match starting at 19:00 on Monday, there will be no bets left for Sweden’s match against Belgium starting at 21:45.

– We know that Austria has to lose points to keep the dream alive. Bigger things have happened in football so I think they will have a tough match, striker Dejan Kulusevski said to SVT.

Piloted the Swedish national team since 2016 Jan Andersson has told resigning if the Games remain a dream. His contract runs until the end of next June.

You can find the standings of the EC qualifiers in this link. For the time being, the host country Germany as well as France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Scotland have secured their places for next year’s EC final tournament.