The Romanian football has been affected by a severe
\ncrisis for many years now. This situation, which has been dragging on for so long,
\nhas made many to believe that this is actual normality, that the low level of
\nperformances, the lowest in the past fifty years, is the normal one. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Football fans in Romania in 2021 hoped for a comeback
\nof the national selection and the qualification of at least one football club
\nin top spring competitions. None of these happened though. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Even with headcoach Mirel Radoi at the helm, the
\nnational eleven was unable to qualify for the world cup. Most of the time, our
\nfootballers managed only lackluster shows in the preliminaries and the results
\nthey obtained were the same. Part of Group
\nJ, Romania started off on the right foot in March with a 3-2 win against North
\nMacedonia in Bucharest. It was followed by a predictable 1-0 home defeat
\nagainst Germany but our footballers came a cropper against Armenia in Yerevan
\n3-2 in spite of getting the upper hand 2-1.
\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In late March at the European Under-21 Championship
\nco-hosted by Hungary and Slovenia, our side was stopped in its tracks in the
\ngroup’s stage. However, the shows put up by our young footballers coached by
\nAdrian Mutu weren’t bad at all; one-all with the Netherlands, nil-all against
\nGermany plus a 2-1 win against Hungary proves that Romanian football still has potential.
\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The year 2021 has its importance for the Romanian
\nfootballers because of their presence in the Olympic Games after an absence of
\n6 decades. This performance became possible thanks to our squad’s 2019
\nqualification for the semifinals of the European Under-21 Championship
\nco-hosted by Italy and San Marino. In July in Japan, our footballers secured a
\n1-0 win against Honduras. They got trounced by South Korea 4-0 and made it nil-all
\nagainst New Zealand. Romania thus ended up on the third position in its group
\nand left the competition. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania’s national football side resumed its
\nqualifying matches for World Cup 2022 with a 2-0 away win against Iceland in
\nSeptember and the same score against Liechtenstein at home. Their away game
\nagainst North Macedonia was a goaless draw. After Armenia versus Liechtenstein
\nhad ended in one-all, Romania became favourite for a second place in the group
\nthat would secure a place in the play-offs and hopefully their qualification
\nfor the competition in Qatar. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In October our side lost 1-2 to Germany and got a
\none-nil home win against Armenia. Sadly, in November our footballers drew their
\nhome match against Iceland nil-all and their 2-0 win against Liechtenstein
\ndidn’t count any more. So Romania ended up on the third position in its group
\ntopped by Germany and North Macedonia went into the playoff.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
At the level of domestic club competitions, CFR Cluj
\nsecured their seventh champion title, which added to those it obtained in 2008,
\n2010, 2012, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Romania’s Cup went to Universitatea Craiova
\nwhich secured a 3-2 win against Astra Giurgiu in Ploie\u0219ti.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
All the Romanian club sides were eliminated from
\nEurope’s top football competitions apart from CFR Cluj, which made it to the
\ngroups of Conference League. However, the shows put up by our footballers in
\nthis competition were below expectations and they ended up at the bottom of
\ngroup D. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(bill)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How Romanian footballers performed in 2021<\/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":[29134,41654,42104,41909,35724,34839],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-122274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-football","tag-headcoach","tag-honduras","tag-mirel","tag-radoi","tag-tokyo"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n