A Football Trip to Luxembourg had never been on the agenda however an international break and deciding to do some low level football once again in Germany suddenly brought this small country into consideration as it borders Germany and France.
Getting to Homburg (our favourite German club) from the UK is not easy and it’s normally a case of flying into Cologne or Frankfurt and then some serious train journeys! However, one of the closest airports is Luxembourg and it just so happened that the National Team they were playing on Friday evening at Stade de Luxembourg in The Nations League, versus Bulgaria!
Flying to Luxembourg
The flight to Luxembourg was a simple £14.99 purchase. With a departure from London Stansted at 07.10am arriving in Luxembourg at 09.25am was offering us a full day to explore a new city too.
Travel in Luxembourg
When researching the trip, we stumbled across a fact which we had to triple check – all public transport within Luxembourg is FREE. That’s trains, trams and buses! This meant that on landing we were able to travel from the airport to the city centre via a 20 minute bus at no charge. This has been the case since 2020 and you only get charged if you want to upgrade to 1st class.
Throughout the day we took full advantage of this and whilst a 4km walk allowed us to explore the City well, hopping on the trams between bars and the stadium later on at no cost was great.
Getting to Stade De Luxembourg
Using the free transport network we hopped on a train from the main station which took just 20 minutes to arrive at the stadium, the tram stops literally across the road and you are there.
Luxembourg Match Tickets
For this Football Trip to Luxembourg we were able to obtain match tickets very easily via Luxembourg-Ticket.lu We had to register as a new customer and get a client reference however there was no previous purchases required. Tickets for the match cost 30 Euro’s.
The Stadium
Once you get over the pretty lights and construction of the stadium, it becomes a little disappointing. For a Stadium which opened in just 2021, there is a clear lack of fan areas. Perhaps wrongly we had expected some more modern facilities however the reality was that in 4 degrees and arriving as we did two hours before kick-off, there is nowhere to go and nothing to do. Like the Berlin Olympiastadion which was built 85 years earlier, the only heating was in the toilets.
Stadium food/drink
The food outlets were also very efficient and served good quality food. The hamburger for six euro’s we felt was great value and one of the best we have had at a football ground. Gluhwein was available alongside beer and we opted for the festive liquid to help keep our hands warm!
Nations League
Luxembourg and Bulgaria participate in Nations League C, Group 3 alongside Northern Ireland and Belarus. After 4 matches Luxembourg are bottom of the table with two points and they had to beat Bulgaria to have any chance of reaching the promotion qualification spot.
Luxembourg v Bulgaria
The match kicked off at 20:45pm local time and a game where we expected few goals was exactly that.
A relatively even tie overall, Bulgaria edged it with a goal after 23 minutes from Andrei Kraev with a strike from just outside the box where without having the benefit of watching a second time, perhaps the goalkeeper should do better.
A mix of this result, and the other match in the group, see’s Bulgaria jump up into second place. Meanwhile Luxembourg are placed bottom with their two points with one match remaining versus Northern Ireland on Monday.
Summary
Luxembourg is not a destination for any of our Mystery Football Weekends, however for groundhoppers out there, going to a Nations league match during an International Break is a good way of ticking of the country. We found Luxembourg an efficient place to travel around, the free transport was a huge plus, however it isn’t somewhere we would quickly return to.
Who are Covert Football Trips?
Who are we? Covert Football Trips create Mystery Football Weekends. Choose from 2 or 3 Night experiences which include your flights, accommodation and match tickets. We are a travel agent so your trip is ATOL protected whilst we use our own experience to create amazing weekends.
Choose grounds to avoid, select the dates you want to travel and note the airports you would prefer to fly from and then sit back and let us do all the hard work.
You can book a Covert Football Trip for just £10 deposit per person! Get the gang together and choose your weekend of choice!
