Athlete of the week

Footballer Denis Alibec

Florin Orban, 28.11.2023, 13:45

Romania’s national football team last week succeeded its best performance in recent years. The
national squad booked its ticket to the 2024 edition of the European Championship,
to be hosted by Germany. The qualification came as something special, as the
Romanian national team were at the top of the table in Group 1, with a no-defeat
record. The laudable performance was sealed this past Wednesday in Bucharest,
in the confrontation against Switzerland, initially the top-seeded team in the
group, given the status of its lineup and its position according to the world
rankings made public by FIFA. Switzerland is 14th-placed, while Romania is 48th-placed according to world rankings. Notwithstanding, in
Bucharest, such a difference mattered no more, since Romania won, 1-nil.

The goal scorer, striker Denis Alibec, is the Athlete of the week on Radio
Romania International.

Switzerland was in dire
need of a win against Romania, in order to win the preliminaries’ Group I and
be included in a more accessible pot ahead of the drawing. Murat Yakin’s
trainees put on an offensive game, their attacking bouts were quite a few on
the pitch, yet the Romanian defensive line-up did their job, while the national team’s
goalie, Horatiu Moldovan, succeeded several remarkable saves. It was the
Romanians’ strong determination and Denis Alibec’s goal that, no doubt, made
the difference on the pitch. Here is what Denis Alibec said, right after the
match.

We’re
happy we pulled of a nice one, concluding the campaign with a win and be at the
top of the table in the group, even though not very many people placed their
stakes on us early into the qualification campaign, yet we proved that we were
a family, that we knew how to fight together. Switzerland had a much better
team, but we went, like, do or die on the pitch.

Denis Alibec was born
in Mangalia, on January 5, 1991. He made his debut in Romanian League One being signed
up by Farul Constanta when he was only 17. Then he got transferred to Inter Milan in Italy. He was not included in the club’s top-flight line-up very
often, and was on loan with several other teams. Alibec played, among other teams,
for Astra Giurgiu, FCSB, Kayserispor in Turkey or CFR Cluj.