Euro 2016 Preview - Romania

Team: Romania

Manager: Anghel Iordanescu

Group: A

Other teams in group: France, Albania, Switzerland

THE SQUAD

The names that stick out for lovers of the English game are Watford’s Costel Pantilimon and former Tottenheam Hotspur defender Vlad Chiriches. Coach Iordanescu has included 23 year old Steaua Bucharest attacking midfielder Nicolae Stanciu who scored against Ukraine in their first warm up game. Stanciu only made his debut for Romania three months ago and is included at the expense of VFB Stuttgart’s, and Romania’s talisman, Alexandru Maxim. The skillful playmaker failed to nail a regular starting place for the German Bundesliga side this season and has paid for it by being left out of Euro 2016. Team captain and left-back Razvan Rat makes the squad despite playing little or no football for Rayo Vallecano. Chiriches now plies his trade with Napoli in Serie A and is the Romanian team captain when Rat is absent.

The squad in full:

Goalkeepers: Ciprian Tatarusanu (Fiorentina), Costel Pantilimon (Watford), Silviu Lung (Astra)

Defenders: Cristian Sapunaru (Pandurii Tg. Jiu), Alexandru Matel (Dinamo Zagreb), Vlad Chiriches (SSC Napoli) Valerica Gaman (Astra Giurgiu), Dragos Grigore (Al Sailiya), Cosmin Moti (Ludogorets), (Rayo Vallecano) Steliano Filip (Dinamo)

Midfielders: Michael Pintilii (FC Steaua Bucuresti), Ovidiu Hoban (Hapoel Be'er Sheva), Andrew Quail (Ludogorets), Adrian Popa (FC Steaua Bucuresti) Gabriel Torje (Osmanlispor) Chipciu Alexander (FC Steaua Bucuresti), Nicolae Stanciu (FC Steaua Bucuresti) Lucian Sânmartean (Al Ittihad)

Forwards: Claudiu Keserü (Ludogorets), Bogdan Stancu (Genclerbirligi), Florin Andone (Cordoba), Denis Alibec (Astra)

HOW THEY GOT HERE

Romania finished second in Group F, one point behind surprise group winners Northern Ireland, and only secured qualification with a 3-0 win over the Faroe Islands on the last qualifying day of the group. 

KEY PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT FOR

Nicolae Stanciu: With four goals in his last five appearances for Romania, the 23 year old attacking midfielder is now the key player in the national set up. Wearing Gheorghe Hagi’s famed number 10 jersey, the spotlight and pressure will be thrust on Stanciu’s young shoulders and, with Maxim not included in the squad, Iordanescu will be looking to Stanciu to act as both playmaker and goal-scorer.
 

WHERE THEY ARE PLAYING AND STAYING

Romania will open their account to tournament hosts France at the Stade de France on June 10^th.  The Romanians will stay in Paris to take on Switzerland five days later at Parc des Princes on June 15^th.  The final game of group sees Romania move to Lyon for the late evening kick off against Albania at Parc Olympique Lyonnais.

THREE INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE TEAM

This is Anghel Iordanescu’s third stint as national coach of Romania.

They qualified for Euro 2016 with five wins, five draws and zero losses.

Euro 2008 was Romania’s last appearance at a major tournament. They failed to get out of the tournament’s ‘Group of Death’ that featured Italy, Netherlands and France.

THEIR RECENT FORM

The Romanians had three warm up games against Congo DR, Ukraine and Georgia.

An unconvincing 1-1 draw at home to Congo DR was followed by a seven goal thriller against Ukraine, also at home. The hosts found themselves 1-4 down after an hour. However, the Romanians scored three goals in 25 minutes to leave the final score 3-4 in a performance that was defensibly sloppy by their standards. The Romanians only conceded twice in their qualifying campaign and went undefeated, albeit against far poorer teams.

That result against Ukraine ended an 18 game unbeaten record for Romania, however, seven from their last ten games have ended in draws. Their final warm up game against Georgia on June 3^rd was a 5-1 demolition of a team ranked in the lower echelons of European football. Iordanescu will have learned basically nothing from their last warm up game.

First game: France, Friday 10^th June.