A Review of the Game Pitting Romania against Finland

Romania's national football team has secured a two-nil against the Finish side in a Group F match counting towards the preliminaries of the European Championship due next year.

Ștefan Baciu, 15.10.2014, 13:08

Romania’s national football side has secured a two-nil win against the selection of Finland in a Group F match counting towards the preliminaries of the European Championship due next year.

With Saturday’s game fresh in their memory, when Hungary held Romania to a one-all draw in Bucharest, the Romanians had a shy start against Finland in Helsinki. The beginning of the game belonged to the hosts, who didn’t have any clear goal chances, but managed to prevent Romanians from controlling the midfield section with intense pressing. Footballers from Romania struggled for chances but it was only on 33 minutes when Cristian Tanase challenged the skills of the Finnish keeper.

The Romanians considerably improved their play after midfielder Sanmartean was sent to the pitch. Striker Bogdan Stancu put Romania in the lead with a header after he had latched onto a corner ball sent by Sanmartean on 54 minutes. A Finnish player was given an early bath after a challenge on Sanmartean and that eased the pressure on Romania’s midfielders. On 83 minutes Sanmartean fed Stancu who fired home from outside the box sealing the points: Romania — 2, Finland — nil. The game against Finland gave skipper Razvan Rat his 100th cap for the Romanian national side.

Romania will be up next against the surprising Group F leader, Northern Ireland, in Bucharest on November 14th. We recall that on Tuesday night Northern Ireland clinched a two-nil win against Greece, while Hungary outperformed the Faeroe Islands, one-nil.

Northern Ireland stays at the top of the table in Group F with nine points followed by Romania with seven, Finland and Hungary each with four points, Greece with one and the Faeroe Islands with no point.