Belarus v Luxembourg background
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Article summary
Belarus will look to end a five-game wait for a competitive home win as they welcome a Luxembourg side who they were unable to beat in their opening Group C game.
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Article body
Luxembourg will look to end another long drought away from home in qualifying matches as they come up against Belarus in UEFA EURO 2016 Group C.
• The Luxembourgers are boosted by Saturday's 1-0 home success over now-bottom-ranked FYR Macedonia, whom they have leapfrogged to join Tuesday's visitors Belarus on four points in the section. Neither team can now qualify, however, despite the weekend victory being Luxembourg's first win of the campaign.
• Aleksandr Martynovich (Belarus) and Christopher Martins (Luxembourg) are both suspended after accumulating three bookings. The following players are a yellow card away from a ban: Timofei Kalachev, Igor Shitov (Belarus), Daniel Da Mota, Dwayn Holter, Ben Payal and Chris Philipps (Luxembourg).
Previous meetings
• Stanislav Dragun struck to cancel out Lars Gerson's opener as Belarus held Luxembourg to a 1-1 draw in the teams' first Group C encounter last September.
• Belarus's record in seven matches against Luxembourg is W3 D3 L1 (W2 D0 L1 in Belarus – W1 D3 L0 in Luxembourg). The sides have been drawn together in three successive UEFA European Championship qualifying competitions, also pooled together in the run-up to UEFA EURO 2008 and UEFA EURO 2012.
• On 13 October 2007, Alphonse Leweck's header secured a 1-0 triumph for Luxembourg in Belarus – their first competitive victory in 12 years.
Form guide
• Belarus are without a win in five competitive home games (D1 L4), including defeats in their last four – and their only three competitive games at the new Borisov Arena.
• Luxembourg have lost their last five competitive away matches. They have not won in 17 away qualifiers (D3 L14) since a shock 2-1 success against Switzerland in qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup on 10 September 2008.
Trivia and links
• Luxembourg midfielder Payal turns 27 the day of the Belarus game. Team-mate Da Mota celebrates his 30th birthday three days later.
• Luxembourg's record in four UEFA age-group competition matches against Belarus is W0 D2 L2.
• In the only encounters between the nations' clubs in UEFA competition, Dinamo Minsk beat CS Hobscheid 6-0 at home in the first round of the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup, drawing the return fixture 1-1.
