Guilty of a bad start, the Luxembourgers never managed to come back up to the better organized Belgians (23-39). See you this Saturday afternoon for the revenge.
The disappointment on Luxembourg’s faces speaks volumes. Admittedly, it was only a friendly match but it meant much more to Tina Welter’s teammates. If they finally hoped to taste victory a little less than four years after their last success dating from May 31, 2019 against Finland during phase 1 of the qualifications for Euro-2020, not everything went as planned. for the Roud Leiwinnen. Blame it on the “Black Arrows” who came to dominate their hosts quite clearly (23-39).
Deprived of Joy Wirtz due to knee discomfort, the locals have some difficulty finding themselves at the start of the meeting. It is even the Belgians who open the scoring through their captain and professional Nele Antonissen (0-1, 2e). It takes four minutes to see the first achievement of Adrian Stot’s players signed Teodora Galic from his right wing (1-1, 4e). Guilty of some inaccuracies and annoyed by a compact visitor defense, the players from the Grand Duchy quickly fell three units behind (4-7, 10e).
At the 16e minute, the Luxembourg staff decided to make a change of goalkeeper. Laure Flener gives way to Adriana Staicu, the CHEV Diekirch player called at the last minute to take part in the two meetings, with a view to future naturalization. And the number 12 is not long in highlighting itself by winning its first duel against Macours. On the other hand, it can do nothing about the second. Left alone on the counter-attack following a recovery of the ball, Boons, author of five goals already, once again hit the mark (4-11, 17e).
A revenge to take
After ten minutes without finding the target, it is finally Laura Willems who comes to stop the bleeding for hers (5-12, 19e). If the locals find more solutions at the end of the first period, the gap at the break is already significant despite this last missile fired by Tania Soberano who comes to stay in the top corner (9-18, 30e).
On returning from the locker room, the Roud Léiwinnen still had as much difficulty in blocking the opposing offensives but showed a completely different face in attack, like the Galic-Zuk doublet (15-25, 39e). Opposite, each loss of ball is well exploited by the Belgian substitutes who do not hesitate to punish the locals (17-29, 43e).
Just back in the game, Laure Flener stops Beckers’ 7-meter throw before releasing an exceptional save with her feet a few moments later. Although the last two grand-ducal ramparts deliver fine performances in the cages, the score continues to swell (18-36, 52e).
The last minutes are anecdotal: superior, Belgium imposes itself quite logically (23-39, 60e). National coach Adrian Stot and his proteges will try to take their revenge on Saturday during Act II of this friendly double test between neighbors.
Programme :
Samedi à Bascharage (4 p.m.): Luxembourg – Belgium