RRI Sports Club

Football

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Florin Orban, 01.09.2021, 13:45

On Thursday Romania’s football team resumes the qualifiers for next years World Cup in Qatar. The Romanian team will take on, in Reykjavik, the team of Iceland, in the 4th match played in preliminary group J. It will be followed by the match with Liechtenstein, on Sunday, in Bucharest. Then, next Wednesday, Romania’s footballers will be up against the team of Northern Macedonia, in Skopje. Of the three matches played so far, Romania has won only one, namely the debut one: 3-2 with Northern Macedonia, on March 25. On March 28, Romania’s footballers were defeated on home turf, 0-1, by Germany, and 3 days later, in Yerevan, they lost, for the first time, to Armenia – score 2 – 3. At this moment, in Group J, Armenia is on 1st position, with 9 points out of 9. It is followed by Northern Macedonia and Germany, with 6 points each. Romania and Iceland are ranked on the last two places in the group, with 3 points each, being separated by the goal average.

For the matches with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Northern Macedonia, the coach of the Romanian national football team, Mirel Rădoi, summoned six newcomers: goalkeeper Marian Aioani and defender Virgil Ghiță, from Farul Constanța, midfielders Andrei Cordea, from FCSB and Marius Marin, from the Italian team Pisa, defender, Andrei Rațiu, from the Spanish team Huesca, and striker Jovan Markovic, from Universitatea Craiova. Of the established players, the striker Florin Tănase, the captain of FCSB team, Romania’s vice-champions, will be missing, as he injured his right ankle in the last match played by his club team in League I and left the national team’s training camp in Mogoșoaia.

The team selected by Rădoi is made up of relatively young footballers with not much experience in international matches. There are a few exceptions though, namely Vlad Chiricheș, from Sassuolo, with 64 selections, Nicolae Stanciu, from Slavia Prague, with 42 selections to the national team, Răzvan Marin, from Cagliari, with 30 selections, and Alin Toșca, from Gaziantep, with 25. As for the rest of the team’s footballers, they have not played for the national team more than 20 times. (LS)