As expected by sports pundits, Romania’s under-21 side comfortably
\nwon against Liechtenstein, 4-nil, in their final group match counting for the
\nEuropean Under-21 Championship qualifying games. With 7 wins and 3 draws in 10
\nmatches, Romania finished the qualifying campaign without losing a single
\nmatch. They accumulated 24 points in total, winning a group that also included
\nPortugal, Bosnia, Wales and Switzerland. <\/p>\n
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This is the second time Romania’s under-21 side qualify for the
\nEuropean Championship after 1998, when they won all matches in a group that
\nalso included Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania and Macedonia. Romania won at the
\ntime the right to host the competition, but were eliminated in the first round
\nby the Netherlands and then also lost the matches for the 5th to 8th
\nplaces against Germany and Russia. <\/p>\n
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Tuesday’s win comes after an exasperating string of bad results for
\nRomanian football. Less than mediocre at the European Championship hosted by
\nFrance two years ago, the senior national side missed the World Cup in Russia
\nand now rank third out of four sides in their group in the third tier of the
\nLeague of Nations. Also, the club that represented Romania in the European cups
\nthis year were all eliminated as early as August in the preliminary rounds. <\/p>\n
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Pundits say that the young players of Romania’s under-21 side, many
\nof whom play for respected clubs in Europe such as Leicester, Genoa, Palermo
\nand Rapid Vienna, have a different mentality, they reject mediocrity and are
\nthirsty for victories. They are already in the top 12 of Europe’s 53 sides and
\nwill play in the final tournament in Italy, a country that is home to over 1
\nmillion Romanians. Ianis Hagi, one of the team’s leaders:<\/p>\n
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We are happy to make an entire country proud of us and that we’re
\ngiving them hope again. We have achieved something that not many generations
\nhave been able to do and now we’ll go out there and take on the other sides as
\nequals, because we’ve got no fear, we know we’re good, we know we’ve got
\ntalent. I think we’ll do a good job.<\/p>\n
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This is the first international achievement as a coach for the
\nteam’s 37-year old manager and former international player Mirel Radoi:<\/p>\n
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It’s very easy to work with them because they’re a very
\nclosely-knit group, there’s a lot of talent in the team and that makes any
\nmanager’s job easy. I’m the happiest man right now, because this is the biggest
\nachievement. It’s even more special because the last time we had this much
\nsuccess was 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
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Radoi shares the praise for the qualification with Daniel Isaila,
\nwho managed the team during the early part of the qualifying campaign, before
\nsigning with Al-Hazem, in Saudi Arabia. Many of the Romanian under-21 players
\ncome from the Viitorul Constanta football academy founded and run by the former
\ninternational player Gheorghe Hagi, who had 125 caps for the national side and
\nscored 35 goals for Romania. <\/p>\n
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Perhaps too optimistic, some voices say this young generation of
\nplayers, which includes Hagi’s own son, may even surpass that of Gheorghe Hagi
\nwho played in three world and two European championships in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romanias Under-21 side have qualified for the final tournament of the European Championship after 20 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":79162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[37707],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-79161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-european-under-21-football-championship"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n