The Romanian national team got off to a dream start in their participation in the European Football Championship in Germany. Despite being in the role of underdogs, Eduard Iordanescu’s team gave a lesson to the favored Ukrainian team, defeating them in a categorical way with a score of 3:0 at the “Allianz Arena” in Munich. Strongly motivated by over 35,000 of their compatriots in the stands, our northern neighbors left no chance for their opponent with three unanswered goals.
The first of these came in the middle of the first half, when captain Stanciu scored with a precise shot from medium range. The key moment of this match was the beginning of the second half, when two quick goals into the net of the unconvincing Lunin today put an end to the dispute. They were the work of Răzvan Marin and Denis Dragus.
Thus, the Romanians got hold of invaluable three points, which increase their chances of continuing in the knockout stage. Their Group E also includes Slovakia and Belgium.
The Romanians tried to start ambitiously in view of the incredible support they received from the stands of the “Allianz Arena”. However, the Ukrainians immediately took over the center of the pitch and were the team that held the ball for a longer period of playing time.
The first better attack in the match came from Eduard Iordanescu’s team. Andrei Raciu threw a leading pass for Răzvan Marin, who came in from the center, but Andriy Lunin followed the situation well and intercepted at the right moment.
The two teams relied on direct football, as in the eighth minute they exchanged one dangerous attack each. First, Tsygankov was unable to reach a shot from the edge of the penalty area. On the other side, Coman had all the time in the world to adjust his shot, but it easily fell into Lunin’s hands.
Gradually, the game took on a positional character, the two teams gave up on the direct approach and each attack was worked out with a maximum number of touches. Sometimes even “parasitic” ones.
The lack of sufficiently precise attacks forced people like Artem Dovbyk to try their luck with long shots. However, the Girona star was not accurate enough.
For a goal to be scored in such a kind of tough battle, a mistake was needed. Well, such a thing happened in the 27th minute, when our northern neighbors took the lead. Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin made a fatal mistake on a ball returned to him, sending it to the feet of Denis Man. The Parma star looked around well and saw his captain Stanciu, who with a precise shot from 21 meters, and at a speed of 119 km/h, sent the ball unstoppably into the top right corner of the Ukrainians.
After conceding the goal, the Ukrainians experienced several crisis minutes, during which they frantically cleared the ball as far away as possible from their penalty area.
Romania’s happiness could have been overshadowed in the 38th minute, when Tottenham defender Dragusin cleared Zinchenko’s dangerous cross so well that he almost sent it into his own net.
Romania was close to doubling its lead after another wonderful execution of a shot from outside the penalty area. Denis Man spun the ball beautifully, but it passed extremely close to the right corner of Lunin.
The afternoon for Andriy Lunin could have turned into a terrifying one, after in the 42nd minute the goalscorer Stanciu almost punished him directly from a corner. The keeper had left his position in front of the goal line and only his timely corrective intervention saved him from serious embarrassment.
The Ukrainians logically started the second half more aggressively. However, it was clear that the work between the individual units in Serhiy Rebrov’s team was not functioning in the necessary synchronicity, as Romania punished them with a goal on their first more serious counterattack in the second 45 minutes. In the 52nd minute, a cleared ball in just such an action reached the feet of Răzvan Marin, who from a long distance, strongly on the ground, caught Lunin unprepared, to drive the thousands of Romanian fans at the “Allianz Arena” crazy for the second time.
Like real predators, smelling the weakness of their opponent, the Romanians quickly decided everything in this match with a third goal. The classic came after a static situation, in which Denis Man entered the opponent’s penalty area with great class and served it on a platter for Denis Dragus, who had no way to miss in front of the goal line for the already devastating 3:0!
The match was temporarily delayed in the 72nd minute due to a Romanian fan who ran onto the pitch. Under the urging of the fans, he was spared by the local police and instead of being arrested, he was returned to the stands.
Ukraine did not make their first shot on target in the match until the 75th minute, when Sudakov decided to try his luck from over 20 meters out. Florin Niță was alert and his spectacular save earned him the applause of his compatriots.
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