Romania’s youth selection secured a 3-0 away win against Malta in group
8 of the preliminaries of the European Under-21 Football Championship. Last
Friday, Romania’s youth side clinched another away win in the same competition,
results which represent a successful debut of the team’s new coach Adrian Mutu.
Together with Hagi, the new headcoach holds a record for the highest
number of goals scored for Romania’s national football side, 35. Adrian Mutu
played for famous international football clubs such as Internazionale Milan,
Chelsea London, Parma, Juventus Turin and Fiorentina.
Selector Adrian Mutu believes the wins against Finland and Malta were
99% possible because of the excellent footballers of the Romanian side.
Adrian Mutu:
It
is a wonderful feeling, the boys are feeling good, they feel appreciated. They
are good boys with character and all, extraordinary footballers, real professionals.
Of course I would like them to be part of Romania’s main selection but on the
other hand I would like to keep them here at the youth team, because they are
good and I want to rely on good footballers. We hope to get qualified even if
it takes sacrifice, perseverance and discipline. This is what we must do and if
we are doing all that I believe that football will reward us in the end.
The coach believes that Dennis Man, the
footballer who opened the scoring against Malta and who is currently playing
for FCSB in the domestic championship, can take over his job with the national
youth side. ‘This is what he has to do, score goals and work for the team. I
changed his position in the lineup and I see he performs even better. Hopefully
he will be scoring many goals for the national side,’ coach Mutu went on to
say.
In the other matches in Romania’s group,
Denmark secured a 1-0 away win against Northern Ireland, while Ukraine obtained
a 2-0 win against Finland also away. Denmark ranks first in the group with 19
points out of 7 games followed by Romania with 16, Finland and Ukraine each
with 7, Northern Ireland with 6 and Malta with 1.
On October 9th Northern Ireland
will be playing Finland, Ukraine will be up against Romania and Malta takes on
Denmark. The nine winners of the preliminary groups and best five teams coming
second will qualify for the final tournament, which also includes the
selections of the host countries, Hungary and Slovenia. The games of the four
groups will be held between March 24th and 31st 2021. The
first two sides in each group will be vying for the title over May 31st
and June 6th next year.
We recall that under the guidance of Mirel
Radoi, Romania’s Under 21 side, last year made it to the semifinals of the
European championship and qualified for the Tokyo Olympics after an absence of
56 years as the prestigious competition had to be postponed due to the
coronavirus pandemic.
(tr. bill)
