Romania’s national football team has booked its ticket
\nto the Tokyo Olympic Games following a 56-year gap. We recall that the last time
\nRomanian took part in an edition of the Olympics was also in Japan, in 1964.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Romania’s national team back then had a spectacular
\nqualification trail for the Olympics. Two preliminary rounds had been required
\nin order to achieve that. In the first leg against Denmark, Romania succeeded a
\n3-2 win, away, and everybody was pretty relaxed regarding the return home leg.
\nIt’s just that the Danish did not agree to that, so much so that in Bucharest,
\nthey had grabbed a 3-nil advantage halfway through the first half of the match.
\n<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yet Romania scored twice and a play-off match
\nfollowed, according to regulations, which was hosted by Turin in Italy. After
\n90 minutes of regular play, the display of the scoreboard showed 1-all. Extra
\ntime had to be played, and in 117th minute, the winning goal was
\nscored by Mircea Sasu, who played for the B-division team Minerul Baia Mare.
\nThe second preliminary round saw Romania facing Bulgaria. Back then Romania
\nmade short work of their opponents, winning 2-1 on home turf and 1-nil, away. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the Olympic tournament, Romania was ascribed to
\nGroup A, alongside Mexico, Iran, and the so-called team of united Germany,
\nactually an East-German lineup. On October 11, 1964, Romania defeated Mexico,
\n3-1. Then on October 13, a 1-all draw followed, against Germany. On October 15,
\nRomania grabbed a 1-nil win against Iran and then made it to the quarterfinals,
\nbeing the runner-up team in Group A while the team from East Germany was at the
\ntop of the table. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One of the best teams at that time, Hungary, was Romania’s
\nchallenger in the fight for a place in the semifinals. In the game venued by a
\nstadium in Yokohama, on October 18, 1964, Hungary’s Tibor Csernai drew first blood
\non 2 minutes. Romania’s captain Gheorghe Constantin wasted the team’s biggest
\nchance to level the score when the referee granted Romania a penalty kick six
\nminutes before the final whistle. Hungary did turn into a goal the penalty kick
\nthey were granted shortly afterwards, again thanks to Tibor Csernai. In the
\nsemifinals, Hungary trounced Egypt, 6-nil, also winning the final against
\nCzechoslovakia, 2-1. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania’s national football team in the 1960s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":121626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[29134,41987,41934,41889,41988],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-121001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-football","tag-leg","tag-penalty-kick","tag-referee","tag-semifinal"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n