Football: Racing wins the Luxembourg Cup
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Winner of Dudelange (3-2) in the final on Thursday at the Stade de Luxembourg, the RFCU triggered its second Luxembourg Cup and will play in Europe next season.
Racing fills its trophy shelf. Four years after its first and only crowning in the Luxembourg Cup, the capital club once again won the competition on Friday at the Stade de Luxembourg, beating Dudelange (3-2) in the final. After two editions canceled due to the Covid, Jeff Saibene’s men take over from Dudelange and play in the European Cup next season.
Faced with a low attendance for the first Cup final at the Luxembourg stadium, Dudelange quickly took control of the leather but was crucified by a realistic Racing. Emmanuel Françoise opened the scoring by cutting off a header from Loris Tinelli in the area (1-0, 14th). Well launched in depth, Yann Mabella then beat Lucas Fox after a race of 50 meters (2-1, 27th). Meanwhile, Kevin Van Den Kerkhof, for his last match with the F91 before joining Bastia (French D2), had taken advantage of a loss of ball at the entrance to the surface to shoot Romain Ruffier (1-1, 22nd ).
In his wake, Dudelange could have found the fault, but Ruffier was on the head at close range from Adel Bettaieb (26th) and the deflected shot from Dejvid Sinani grazed the post (39th). Racing could have made the break before half-time if Kobe Cools had not saved an attempt by Kevin Nakach on his line (42nd). Dudelange finally returned as soon as he returned from the locker room on a recovery in the area from a Jules Diouf mounted at the forefront (2-2, 47th). Master of the ball, Carlos Fangueiro’s men were close to taking the lead but Bettaieb crossed his shot too much (56th) and Samir Hadji failed to beat Ruffier (65th).
Mabella sees double
Decidedly more realistic, Racing did not hesitate to return to the lead. Out in the foot of his defender under pressure by Tinelli, Fox pushed the ball into the feet of Mabella who only had to conclude (3-2, 70th). Solid behind and playing the shots thoroughly in front, Jeff Saibene’s men have held on and are playing in the Europa League Conference qualifications next season.
(Nicolas Grellier)