F91 Dudelange: Coincidence no more…

Jonathan Joubert raised his hands in ecstatic celebration and started running to his teammates. A few seconds earlier the veteran Luxembourgish goalkeeper has saved the last penalty in the shootout between F91 Dudelange and FC Ararat Armenia.

The last ticket of the Europa League group phase ended up to the home side’s hands and has written a glorious history footnote: This is the first time in football history that a team from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg competes for second consecutive time in a group phase of any European Cup. A consecutive coincidence is a coincidence no more…

It was a rare moment of international joy for the 40-year-old goalkeeper. Having defended Luxembourg national team’s goalpost for more than 15 years and more than 90 matches, he has never experienced a star performance like this.  At this match against the Armenians he was the absolute hero: He saved two penalties in the procedure. That’s why during the celebrations he was lifted up by his teammates, who recognize his contribution.

Joubert is a club veteran, being member of the F91 Dudelange squad till 2004. This club is actually a union of the three city clubs back in 1991. Alliance Dudelange and US Dudelange were playing in third division at the time, while Stade Dudelange was struggling in last places of second division. In that moment of time clubs officials decided to try on “the strength in unity”: The club was renamed F91 Dudelange, took Stade Dudelange’s place and made steady and stable steps to domestic domination.

Less than ten years later, in 1999, F91 Dudelange celebrated their first league title. Later on they became the dominant club, after grabbing another 14 titles in 19 league competitions after 2000-01 seasons. They also added 8 domestic cups to their silverware. However, their international campaigns usually ended in despair: Apart from some sporadic wins (like a glorious 1-0 win over Austrian Red Bull Salzburg in 2012-13) they couldn’t make an impact to the European scene.

Their first real success came during the 2018-19 season. After a narrow elimination from the Champions League in the hands of  Hungarian MOL Vidi, F91 Dudelange came all the way vs. Kosovar Drita, Polish Legia Warsaw and Romanian CFR Cluj to reach the group stage. There, they competed against giants AC Milan and well established European clubs such as Real Betis and Olympiacos Piraeus.

The second consecutive successful campaign wasn’t so glorious, but yet more important, as there wasn’t any surprise advantage: Everybody knew them and considered them as a serious contender. Things got worse after a rather unexpected elimination from Maltese Valetta F at Champions League 1^st qualification round. After this, they’ve seen off the Northern Macedonian side of Shkendija Tetovo, then came Nomme Kalju from Estonia before crushing vs. Ararat Armenia.

This success would help Luxembourgish football rise a little bit from the level of absolute depreciation. Teams from this tiny country of less than a million inhabitants were the absolute minnows of European competitions and experienced embarrassing defeats. No more, please. The Grand Duchy has a team it could be proud of.