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Florin Orban, 25.01.2018, 13:38

Romania’s national football team has been drawn in Group 4 of Nations League C, alongside Serbia, Montenegro and Lithuania. Matches will be played on a double-leg basis in September, October and November this year. The winners of each group will play in the superior tier the following year, while last-placed teams will be relegated to the inferior tier.

The draw for the 2020 European Championship preliminary phase will be held on December 2, 2018. Seeding of teams into the six drawing pots will be based on the results of the 2018-2019 Nations League group stage. Romania is part of third-tier League C, where the winners of the four groups as well as the best-ranked two teams in all the groups in runner-up position will be seeded into the third pot. The remaining teams will be seeded into the fourth pot.

The qualification campaign for the 2020 European Championships will be played over March-November 2019. The best-ranked teams in the four groups of Nations League C, which have not already qualified to the 2020 European Championship during the preliminary phase, will advance to the Nations League playoffs, to be played in March 2020. The playoffs will be played on a single-leg semi-final basis on the home turf of the team that had a higher ranking in the Nations League group phase. The final match will be played on a single-leg basis, and the host team will be established in a draw. The winner will qualify to the 2020 European Championship.

Romania’s toughest opponent in Group 4 is Serbia, a team already qualified to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. On the other hand, Romania had already played Montenegro in the World Cup preliminaries. Our team drew 1-all at home and lost nil-1 away from home. Finally, Romania has lost only once in the 11 matches played against Lithuania over the years.(Translated by V. Palcu, edited by D. Vijeu)