On Tuesday night, at 19:45, Luxembourg and Montenegro meet on the Josy Barthel arena in the second round of the UEFA League of Nations. The two teams started successfully in group C1: Montenegro defeated Cyprus (2-0), while Luxembourg beat Azerbaijan (2-1). For the Balkans it was the second success in a row, with the same score of 2-0.
With no wins in ten games and seven consecutive defeats, Luxembourg beat Azerbaijan after an excellent offensive performance: their fifth match in the last six in which they have scored at least three goals. At home, Luz Holtz’s team has lost 3 of the last 5 games played, but we have reasons to expect a close match. Essential will be the defensive game of the favorites.
We know that Luxembourg has players who have come to play for good teams in Europe, and the defense of the national team in the Duchy has progressed in recent years. We will keep an eye on Gerson Rodrigues, the one who scored 3 of the last 6 successes of his country. Montenegro is certainly more valuable than Luxembourg, but we have seen strong national teams that have struggled at this stadium.
In fact, the victory in Cyprus was the first for Montenegro in the last five consecutive trips. In Tuesday’s match, the owner Stevan Jovetic is announced, whose “double” decided the match against Cyprus. Without a goal scored in the first half in the last eight games, Luxembourg does not have high hopes for victory, but hopes to defend the white draw as much as possible. The equal share at the break is excellent at Fortuna.
Before the victory with Azerbaijan, Luxembourg had lost without appeal the difficult matches with Portugal (0-3), Denmark (0-4), Serbia (2-3) and Portugal (0-2). The match in Baku was decided by Krivotsyuk’s own goal (’48) and Rodrigues’ successful penalty kick (’72), but also by the elimination of the Azerbaijani Emreli (’26).
Montenegro played very well with Belarus (2-0) and Cyprus (2-0) and forgot the humiliation of the trip with England, score 0-7 at Wembley. Montenegro won the only direct duel in Luxembourg in history in 2013. It was 4-1 for the Montenegrins, who scored through Basa (’38), Zverotic (’58), Jovanovic (’70) and Cetkovic ( 80). Since then, however, the difference in value between the two has narrowed.
-Luxembourg have lost 4 of the last 5 matches played;
-In the last 4 matches of Montenegro, only one of the teams scored;
-Stevan Jovetic is the only player in the League of Nations to have scored more than one goal in this edition;
-In 4 of the last 5 matches of the national team from Montenegro, they scored under 2.5 goals;
-Luxembourg has only one victory in the last 10 matches played (friendly and official);
PREDICTION: Montenegro to win @ 2,00
