The headcoach of
Romania’s national team, Mirel Rădoi, has called up 26 players for the matches
Romania will play against Iceland and Liechtenstein in Group J as part of the
2022 World Cup preliminaries. A surprise presence is that of 15-year-old Enes
Sali, who is the youngest scorer in the history of the Romanian First League. Unavailable
for the match against Iceland after being banned for repeated yellow bookings,
striker Valentin Mihăilă was left out.
Thus Romania’s
team includes goalkeeper Florin Niţă, defenders Vlad Chiricheş, Andrei Burcă,
Nicuşor Bancu, midfielders Răzvan Marin, Alexandru Cicâldău, Nicolae Stanciu,
Ianis Hagi and strikers George Puşcaş and Andrei Ivan. Of the 26 players
called up to the squad, 11 are competing in the domestic championship, while 15
are playing for foreign clubs, 4 in Italy and Turkey each, 2 in the Czech
Republic and one each in Germany, England, Spain, Hungary and Scotland.
Iceland’s
headcoach, Arnar Vidarsson, also presented his squad ahead of the matches his
team will play against Romania and North Macedonia. Runar Mar Sigurjonsson,
currently enrolled at CFR Cluj, was not selected.
The match will
be held on Steaua Bucharest stadium on Thursday. The six referees are from
Russia.
In Group J,
Germany has already secured qualification to the World Cup, where the winners
of each preliminary group can qualify. The ten teams in second position and the
best-ranked two teams in Nations League, other than those in second position in
the preliminaries, will play playoff matches to secure qualification.
Germany
currently tops the league tables with 21 points, followed by Romania with 13 points, North Macedonia and Armenia each with 12 points, Iceland with 8 points
and Liechtenstein with 1 point. (VP)