RRI Sports Club

The history of Romania's participation in the World Cup (part III)

Florin Orban, 13.06.2025, 13:45

For the 1994 World Cup, held in the US, Romanians were already hoping to improve the performance in Italy. The qualification campaign began with Cornel Dinu as head coach, however he was dismissed after a shameful 2 – 5 defeat in Kosice, against Czechoslovakia. Anghel Iordănescu stepped in and put things in order. Romania won the group, tied on points with Belgium.

In the US, the first opponent was Colombia, the best team in South American football at that time. With Răducioiu in great shape, scoring 2 goals, Romania won 3-1. The last goal was scored by Hagi, with a lob from 30 meters over the Colombian goalkeeper, which was later remembered as one of the most beautiful goals in the history of the World Cup.

Again, the tremendous joy was followed by a wake-up call: 1-4 against Switzerland. The next match was against the host team, the United States, which came with excellent morale. Thanks to a goal scored by Dan Petrescu, the Romanians reached the round of 16 again. The opponent was Argentina, without Maradona, who had been suspended for doping, but with Simeone, Batistuta and Ortega on the pitch. Ilie Dumitrescu owned the match, scoring 2 goals. Romania won 3-2 and kicked out Argentina for the second time in a row, from the race for the World Cup.

In the quarterfinals, the Romanians again lost on penalty shootouts, this time to Sweden, and missed the opportunity to face Brazil in the semi-finals.

With Iordănescu still at the helm, the qualifiers for the 1998 World Cup in France saw Romania in an easy group. The only teams to fear were Macedonia and Ireland, but Romania reached the final tournament in France with no problems. The unpleasant surprise was the draw of the groups there. We were facing Colombia again, after 4 years, and England after 28 years. The other opponent was Tunisia. Again, we beat the better teams (1-0 with Colombia and 2-1 with England) and only drew against Tunisia. Enough to qualify for the round of 16, where we faced Croatia, an extremely ambitious team, which defeated us 1-0. Croatia went on to reach the semi-finals, where they were defeated by France. This was the last Romanian presence at a World Cup. (AMP)