Football Flash

Romania’s national football team is playing Poland away from home on June 10th as part of the 2018 World Cup preliminaries. Coach Christoph Daum has called up 26 players, of whom 15 are playing for international clubs and 11 from the domestic championship. Another five players are on the reserve list. Two first-team regulars, defender Dragos Grigore and striker Denis Alibec have sustained injuries in training and are uncertain ahead of the match scheduled to take place in Warsaw.

Steliu Lambru, 08.06.2017, 13:12

Coach Daum told a pre-match press conference that he could give up the number 10 shirt, as fans are overrating this number that belonged to legendary player Gheorghe Hagi and players from the younger generation might not live up to the challenge. Asked whether he considers resigning in case Romania loses against Poland, which would mean our country would fail to qualify, coach Daum said he doesn’t believe this would help the team perform better or that players would improve their game or new players would step up.

Alexandru Chipciu, who this year was a first lineup regular for Belgium’s champions Anderlecht Brussels, said Romania holds good chances to win against Poland in Warsaw, arguing that Romania’s opponents are neither the world nor the European champions. Chipciu said Romania could win also by putting up a solid defense.

Poland’s star player is undoubtedly Bayern Munich’s forward Robert Lewandowski, designated best player in Bundesliga this football season. Group E is made up of Romania, Denmark, Poland, Montenegro, Armenia and Kazakhstan. Halfway through the preliminaries, Poland tops the group tables with 13 points, followed by Montenegro with 7 points, Denmark with 7 points, Romania with 6 points, Armenia with 6 points and Kazakhstan with 2 points. After the match against Poland Romania will play a friendly game against Chile on Cluj Arena on June 13.