Euro 2016 is drawing near

European football fans are these days focusing on the European Football Championship, EURO 2016

Florin Orban, 08.06.2016, 13:51

European football fans are these days focusing on the European Football Championship, EURO 2016, scheduled to kick-start on Friday, June 10th. As an absolute first, 24 teams will be competing for the Trophy, which is a record high number of national teams in a European final tournament. We recall that since 1996, no more than 16 teams have taken part in the final tournament.

It was in 1984 that Romania took part for the first time in the final of a European tournament. France was also the host country back then, and 8 teams took part in the competition. With Mircea Lucescu at the helm, Romania had made headway into the final tournament having won preliminary group 5, which also included Italy, Czechoslovakia, Sweden and Cyprus. However, Romania grabbed only one point in the final tournament, emerging as the bottom-of-the-table team in Group 2 and being outclassed by Spain, Portugal and Federal Republic of Germany.

Twelve years passed until Romania managed to qualify once again to a final tournament. In 1996, the national squad emerged as top-of-the -table in a preliminary group where France was rated as main favorite, and earned their place at the final tournament in England. We recall that back then Romania outperformed Slovakia, Poland, Israel and Azerbaijan. However, the national squad’s run in England was embarrassing, since Romania sustained three defeats out of three games played, in the fixtures against France, Bulgaria and Spain. The national team’s manager back then was Anghel Iordanescu, the same manager who is now at the helm of the national squad.

In the EURO 2000, with Victor Piturca at the helm, Romania succeeded a win-all qualification at the final tournament, in a group where only the national team of Portugal mattered. In Porto, Romania grabbed a precious 1-nil win against Portugal, and the fact that the national squad was one goal up made the difference in the final. The European championship was jointly hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands. For the first time ever, Romania went past the competition’s group stage. Our national team held Germany to a 1-all draw, lost to Portugal, nil-one and managed a 3-2 win against England. However, in the quarterfinals Italy overpowered Romania, 2-nil, reaching the finals.

At EURO 2008, Romania also got through to the final tournament, again with Victor Piturca at the helm. The national squad won their preliminary group outperforming the Netherlands, which was ranked 2nd, as well as Bulgaria, which ended on 3rdplace. The national squads of the Belarus, Albania, Slovenia, and Luxembourg did not matter that much back then. At the final tournament jointly hosted by Austria and Switzerland, Romania grabbed two points, following a blank draw in the game against France and a 1-all draw against Italy. However, Romania was defeated by the Netherlands, 2-nil, which meant an unassuming 3rd position for our national team.