A review of the match pitting Romania against Greece

Romania vs. Greece qualifiers

Florin Orban, 08.09.2015, 14:01

Romanias football team on Monday missed another opportunity of securing qualification to the 2016 European Championship to be held in France. Romania couldnt beat Greece at home, as the match ended in a blank draw. This is the third tie for Romania in three matches, after Anghel Iordanescus trainees drew against Northern Ireland in June and against Hungary last Friday.

Coach Anghel Iordanescu prepared a safe tactic ahead of the game. Although they only had two points before Mondays match, Greece still had the most valuable squad in the group. Romanias coaches didnt take this into account, and mistakenly played up the offensive. Even so, Romania dominated the game, had a few important opportunities to score, but our strikers lack of effectiveness produced little chance on the scoreboard. One explanation could the absence of some first-team regulars, such as strikers Ciprian Marica or Raul Rusescu. The performance of Claudiu Keseru or Lucian Sanmartean was below expectations. After the game, Coach Anghel Iordanescu admitted his team lacked the offensive will and blamed the blank score on the performance of players playing in foreign competitions, who are still trying to make their way into their clubs first team.

Let us also note that in other fixtures scheduled on Monday, Finland grabbed a narrow 1-nil win over the Faeroe Islands at home, while Northern Ireland grabbed 1 point in the last minutes of the game against Hungary at home.

Top of the group tables is now Northern Ireland with 17 points, followed by Romania with 16 points and Hungary with 13 points.

Romanias next matches are scheduled on October 8 against Finland at home, and on October 11 against the Faeroe Islands away from home.