[Romania] The Editorial of Radu Faur: Road to Euro 2016 - Romania, very close to qualifying: Greece, defeated at home with their own weapons

dadyma89 21:36:00 0

Romania won their first Euro 2016 qualifier, 1-0 away, against Greece. They took an early lead, and Marica's penalty goal proved to be the only one in the game, even though Piţurcă's team had to play 10 against 11 for the whole second half. It was only the first game of the campaign, but the Romanians can already think about booking their tickets for France, considering that two or even three teams will qualify from probably the easiest group of them all. Hungary, Northern Ireland, Finland and Faroe Islands are the other teams they have to play against, so these three points that Marica & co gained on the favourite's ground are a huge step towards the summer of 2016 tournament.

After being thrown out by the Greeks from the World Cup race last year, the Romanians wanted a revenge, which is more like a consolation, because the stakes of this game were much smaller than the November 2013 double. UEFA banned Greece to play this game with no spectators, and probably this was a factor rhat contributed to their performance. Their players, especially Mitroglou, were just shaddows of the men that demolished Piţurcă's team last fall. They lacked a big amount of determination, which allowed the Romanians to defend their advantage for more than 80 minutes.

Romania (4-2-3-1)
Tătăruşanu - Tamaş, Grigore, Chiricheş, Raţ - Hoban ('84 Prepeliţă), Pintilii - Maxim ('67 Enache), Chipciu ('90 Torje), Stancu - Marica. Coach: Victor Piţurcă.

Ciprian Tătăruşanu 5,5
Kept a clean sheet, but he had no reaction to the Greek's biggest chance to equalise, in the 88th minute, when the ball hit the post, then ricocheted in his head.

Gabriel Tamaş 5
Played as a fullback, even though he is used to playing in the center of the defence. Had a poor ofensive contribution on the right side, but helped the team in conserving the result, especially in the last 30 minutes. Nevertheless, he could have blown it all away two minutes before the end, when he lost Torossidis, but the Greek's header sent the ball into the post.

Dragoş Grigore 7
Toulouse's player turned 28 on Sunday, but instead of partying he did his chores, preventing Mitroglou or Samaras to threaten Tătăruşanu's goal. He even had a big chance of making it 2-0 right before the break, after Maxim's corner, with a header, but Karnezis denied him the goal.

Vlad Chiricheş 6,5
He hasn't played football in a while and that affected his offensive contribution to the game, but made very few mistakes.

Răzvan Raţ 5
The 33 year old defender had a very rough first half, against Salpingidis and Torossidis, but in the second part of the game it got a little bit easyer for him, probably because the Greeks got tired and his team mates helped him in defense.

Ovidiu Hoban 6,5
Made very few mistakes. A very reliable midfielder that in the second part turned into a useful defender, as Piţurcă defended the 1-0 advantage with a kind of 6-3-0 formation.

Mihai Pintilii 6
Hoban's pair as a defensive midfielder. He was also very useful, but a little sloppier. He recieved a yellow card after a useless foul in the Greek's half of the field, in the 30th minute of the game.

Alexandru Maxim 6
Tried his luck a few times, shooting from a big distance and delivered good from corners and free kicks. He also sacrificed after the 60th minute and helped his team defend the 1-0 advantage. He is considered to be the most talented Romanian player, even had the guts to wear the number 10 shirt this time, but did not have such a big impact in the game as people expect him to.

Alexandru Chipciu 6.5
He played behind the striker and proved that for him is the most suitable position. He got the penalty for Romania in the start of the game and did not stop making the Greek defenders' lives very hard. Failed to close the game earlier with a 2-0 Romanian lead on two occasions, when he had the ball in the box.

Bogdan Stancu 4,5
It is amazing how this player managed to avoyd touching the ball in almost every Romanian action in the Greek half of the field. His contribution as a let winger was close to zero, but in the last 30 minutes of the game he helped his team mates to stop the Greek atacks.

Ciprian Marica 6,5
A huge mistake for Romania's captain in the 53rd minute, when he recieved his second yellow after a stupid and useless foul. Untill then, he was the best man on the field: he scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot, he delivered good balls for his team mates Chipciu and Maxim, he kept the ball when the team needed it and he even made his job as a defender when Greece had corners or free kicks.

Gabriel Enache 6
He played his first game for Romania and, for thirty minutes, helped the team defend the result and even had two good counter attack attempts on the right side of the field.

Prepeliţă and Torje played very few minutes, in the end of the game.

Victor Piţurcă 7
1-0 victories away for Romania trained by Victor Piţurcă tend to be a trade mark. The coach that used to be a striker in the 80's always relies on his defenders more than his creative players. He used the same 4-2-3-1 that failed in the World Cup playoff, but this time had the luck to play against a much softer Greek side. He deserves a high mark for organising his team and keeping a clean sheet, even though they had to play with 10 polayers against 11 for the last 40 minutes of the game. He deliberately left the Greeks have the ball after the break and closed every possible chance of them getting through to Tătăruşanu's box. His teams do not play attractive football - it is quite the opposite, but it was nice for the Romanians to watch Greece losing 1-0 with their own weapons. As I said, a trade mark for Piţurcă is winning 1-0 away with the national team, especially when Romania are the underdogs. The examples: Portugal - Romania 0-1 (Euro 2000 qualifiers), Spain - Romania 0-1 (2006 friendly) or Turkey - Romania 0-1 (World Cup 2014 qualifiers).