A Luxembourg Euro 2024 squad would have seemed fanciful a few years back. Between 1938 and 2006, they were one of the real whipping boys of World Cup and European Championships qualification campaigns. Their record over those 98 years: 181 games played, six wins, 10 draws, 165 losses.
Gradually, though, things began to change. The introduction of even smaller minnows meant Luxembourg began to routinely win one of their qualifying games, with a few draws sprinkled in for good measure.
Over the past few years, that has become a veritable glut of victories by Luxembourgish standards. Luc Holtz's side won three of their eight qualification games for the 2022 World Cup, and the dramatic improvement continued into Euro 2024 qualifying as they finished a strong third place in their group by winning half of their ten matches.
That has deservedly put Luxembourg in with a real chance of qualifying for a major tournament finals for the first time in their history. Standing in their way is a play-off campaign that will see them take on Georgia in the semi-finals in Tbilisi later this month; then, if successful, either Kazakhstan or Greece at home in one of the three play-off finals just a few days later.
The bad news: if they do book passage to neighbouring Germany, they will find themselves in the same group as Portugal, who beat them 9-0 and 0-6 in qualifying.
Luxembourg's squad
Luxembourg's Euro 2024 squad: The squad for the November qualifiers
All clubs as of the time of the November qualifying games
- GK: Anthony Moris (Union SG)
- GK: Tiago Pereira Cardoso (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
- GK: Ralph Schon (Wiltz 71)
- DF: Florian Bohnert (Bastia)
- DF: Dirk Carlson (St. Pölten)
- DF: Maxime Chanot (Ajaccio)
- DF: Lars Gerson (Kongsvinger)
- DF: Laurent Jans (Waldhof Mannheim)
- DF: Seid Korac (Vojvodina)
- DF: Enes Mahmutovic (CSKA Sofia)
- DF: Marvin Martins (Austria Wien)
- DF: Mica Pinto (Vitesse)
- MF: Leandro Barreiro (Mainz 05)
- MF: Christopher Martins (Spartak Moscow)
- MF: Mathias Olesen (1. FC Köln)
- MF: Timothe Rupil (Mainz 05)
- MF: Vincent Thill (Sabah)
- MF: Olivier Thill (LNZ Cherkasy)
- MF: Sebastien Thill (Stal Rzeszów)
- FW: James Alves Rodrigues (Venezia)
- FW: Alessio Curci (Francs Borains)
- FW: David Jonathans (Bayern Munich)
- FW: Edvin Muratovic (Resovia)
- FW: Gerson Rodrigues (Slovan Bratislava)
- FW: Danel Sinani (FC St. Pauli)
Luxembourg Euro 2024 squad numbers
Squad numbers are yet to be confirmed for Euro 2024.
Luxembourg manager: Luc Holtz
A former Luxemborgian Footballer of the Year, Holtz's entire playing and managerial career has been spent in Luxembourg...and indeed, the two have significant overlap.
That's because Holtz was player/manager for Etzella Ettelbruck for eight years from 1999 to 2007, twice helping them gain promotion to the top flight and leading them to three domestic cup finals, the first of which ended in victory.
Holtz has been in the Luxembourg national setup since 2008, first as under-21s manager and, since 2010, as first-team manager.
Luxembourg's star player
Gerson Rodrigues
The country's all-time top scorer with 20 goals, Rodrigues has had an itinerant club career that has taken him from Luxembourg to the Netherlands, Moldova, Japan, Ukraine, Turkey, France, Saudi Arabia, and now Slovakia, where he plies his trade for Slovan Bratislava.
The winger has made a superb start to life at his current club since making the move in the January transfer window in his sixth loan spell away from Dynamo Kyiv. Rodrigues has scored five times in as many games to help Slovan consolidate their commanding lead at the top of the league.
He's also been in brilliant form for his country in qualifying, picking up from where he left off with an equally-impressive run in the Nations League in 2022 by grabbing five goals and two assists in five competitive appearances over the past year.
FAQs
How many players are Luxembourg allowed to take to Euro 2024?
UEFA confirmed in February that each competing nation will be able to name a final squad of 23 players in their Euro 2024 squads, including a mandatory three goalkeepers.
After a couple of tournaments featuring 26-player teams, UEFA have now reverted from the expanded squad.
National managers were allowed to bring 26 players to 2021's European Championship for the first time at a major tournament, as a special measure brought in due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the fixture congestion, the expanded squads returned for the World Cup. Without those same issues, 23-player squads have made a return.
