Luxembourg prevented Eusebio and Benfica greats going to Chile

DANNY Lafferty, Shane Ferguson and Niall McGinn’s Northern Ireland can take some consolation from their 3-2 defeat in Luxembourg on Tuesday (September 10) in that they’re not the first fancied side to have been humbled by the Grand Duchy.
Creggan footballer Hilary Carlyle mediates between Pele and Eusebio in the Las Vegas Quicksilvers v New York Cosmos match in Las Vegas, 1977. Back in 1960 Eusebio, was the victim of a Luxembourg giant slaying. Though he and several Benfica team mates would go on to break Real Madrid's dominance of European football in 1961 and 1962, they didn't take Portugal to Chile in 1962 after the Grand Duchy beat them 4-2 in 1960.Creggan footballer Hilary Carlyle mediates between Pele and Eusebio in the Las Vegas Quicksilvers v New York Cosmos match in Las Vegas, 1977. Back in 1960 Eusebio, was the victim of a Luxembourg giant slaying. Though he and several Benfica team mates would go on to break Real Madrid's dominance of European football in 1961 and 1962, they didn't take Portugal to Chile in 1962 after the Grand Duchy beat them 4-2 in 1960.
Creggan footballer Hilary Carlyle mediates between Pele and Eusebio in the Las Vegas Quicksilvers v New York Cosmos match in Las Vegas, 1977. Back in 1960 Eusebio, was the victim of a Luxembourg giant slaying. Though he and several Benfica team mates would go on to break Real Madrid's dominance of European football in 1961 and 1962, they didn't take Portugal to Chile in 1962 after the Grand Duchy beat them 4-2 in 1960.

Back in 1960 Luxembourg beat Eusébio’s Portugal 4- 2 ensuring their non-qualification for the 1962 World Cup in Chile.

This doomed Eusébio, José Águas, Mário Coluna, Domiciano Cavém - all goalscorers in Benfica’s historic back-to-back European Cup wins over Barcelona in 1961 and Real Madrid in 1962 - to gardening duty in the summer of 1962.

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Other giants slain by the Benelux minnows included a Netherlands side that included Klaas Nuninga - a future Ajax forward who would later miss out on a European Cup medal in 1969 to an AC Milan side featuring Giovanni Trapattoni.

Fifty years ago yesterday (September 11) Luxembourg held the Netherlands to a 1-1 draw in Amsterdam in their attempt to qualify for the second ever European Championship in 1964.

A month later they beat them 2-1 at home. Believe it or not they forced Denmark to a quarter-final replay after drawing 5-5 on aggregate. They only missed out on a semi-final place due to a 1-0 defeat to Denmark in the neutral Olympisch Stadion in Amsterdam.

Other notable wins include a 2 -0 defeat of Turkey in the qualification campaign for Germany 1974.

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And as recently as 2008 they beat a Swiss side featuring Alexander Frei and Hakan Yakin 1-2 in Zurich in the second qualification game for the South Africa World Cup.

That same Swiss side would go on to top their qualifying - including Israel and Greece - and beat eventual World Champions Spain 1-0 in the group stage of the tournament proper.

At the summer Olympics in Helsinki in 1952 Luxembourg also beat Great Britain 5-3. They were beaten by Brazil 2-1 in the first round proper of the competition.

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