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România Internațional, 07.09.2017, 12:45

Romanias national football squad has lost any chances to qualify for the 2018 World Cup following its defeat in Podgorica by the team of Montenegro. The match counted for preliminary Group E. Stevan Jovetic scored the only goal of the game in the 75th minute. The match against Montenegro could be the last for the German Christoph Daum as coach of the Romanian national squad. The Romanian team has two more games to play in this stage, on home turf against Kazakhstan on October 5th and away from home on October 8th, against Denmark.

At the press conference held after the match in Podgorica, Christoph Daum said that nobody was to blame for the fact that the national squad had failed to qualify. A rather controversial figure in Romanian sports, coach Daum said it was not up to him to decide whether he would stay or leave. “My contract terminates automatically at the end of the campaign, if we dont manage to qualify for the World Cup. I will think about it, I will discuss with the federations board and we will make the best decision for the future of the Romanian football said the German before the press.

Group E is headed by Poland with 19 points, followed by Montenegro and Denmark, both with 16 points, Romania with 9, Armenia with 6 and Kazakhstan with 2. Romania last qualified to the World Cup in 1998.

The coach of the Turkish national team, the Romanian Mircea Lucescu, has got his first victory, 1 – nil, against Croatia, in Eskishekir, in the Group I of the World Cup preliminaries. The only goal of the match was scored by Cenk Tosum in the 75th minute. In the 10th minute, Croatia was denied a penalty kick following a Turkish full back handling the ball. Leaders of the rankings are Croatia and Iceland with 16 points, followed by Ukraine and Turkey with 14 points, Finland with 7 and Kosovo with 1 point.