Romania played well and dominated
\nthe defending champions Germany in the first half of the semifinal of
\nthe European Under-21 Championship hosted by Italy and San Marino. The match
\nwas played in Bologna in searing heat, with which the Romanian players coped
\nwell for half a match. By the second half, however, they were drained
\nphysically and Germany came back into the match from 1-2 at half-time to win
\n4-2, scoring the decisive goals in the final moments of the match. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Commentators and supporters agree
\nthat the young Romanian side put on a very good performance in this match and
\nhad an overall remarkable tournament. Suffice it to say that Romania qualified
\nfor the semifinals having won what everyone agreed was the most difficult
\ngroup, after two wins, against Croatia 4-1 and England 4-2, and a goalless draw
\nagainst France, a result that allowed both sides to advance to the next stage.
\nRomania may have lost the match against Germany, but they booked their ticket
\nto the Olympic Games after 56 years, not to mention that they have managed to
\ncoagulate a team with a promising future, a team that achieved a historic
\nresult by making it to the semifinals of a European championship in which they
\nwere on a par with the three sides that have won the recent editions of the Over-21
\nWorld Cup, namely Spain, Germany and France. Their success stands in contrast
\nwith the rest of Romanian football, both the national side and the clubs.
\nHere’s the line-up of Romania’s Under-21 side: Ionu\u0163 Andrei Radu, Cristian Manea, Ionu\u0163 Nedelcearu, Alexandru Pa\u015fcanu,
\nFlorin-Bogdan \u015etefan, Tudor B\u0103lu\u0163\u0103, Alexandru Cic\u00e2ld\u0103u, Dennis Man, Ianis Hagi
\n(the son of the former Romanian international Gheorghe Hagi), Andrei Ivan and
\nGeorge Pu\u015fca\u015f (the team’s top scorer).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Gheorghe Hagi, the founder and financier of the
\nfootball academy that trained most of the players in the Romanian under-21
\nside, believes this golden generation is better than the one he was part of 25
\nyears ago and which is known as the golden generation. They have their entire
\nfuture ahead of them, I hope they’ll have beautiful careers and that they’ll
\nplay for Romanian sides. We must congratulate them and encourage them because
\nthey are young and need support and confidence in order to continue to have
\noutstanding results. They were very close to making it to the final, they
\nfought as equals with Germany. This generation has surpassed us, we never made
\nit to a semifinal, said Hagi. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The manager of the Romanian under-21 side, the former
\ninternational player Mirel Radoi, says the players should be proud of their
\nachievements at this tournament, which will take them to next year’s Olympic
\nGames in Tokyo. I will cherish the memory that we finished in the last four,
\nthat we had dozens of thousands of people supporting us in the stadium and
\nseveral million in front of their TVs, that people who did not have much faith
\nin us have realised that we can have some beautiful results, the Romanian
\nmanager said.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania lost the semifinal against Germany but remain one of the most outstanding teams at the European Under-21 Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":82400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29134],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-82399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-football"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n