A review of the football match pitting Romania against Turkey

Romanias national football team on Tuesday took a huge step backward, in its effort to qualify to the World Cup, to be held in Brazil next year. Manager Victor Piturcas trainees were defeated by Turkey on home turf, 2-nil.

Florin Orban, 11.09.2013, 13:00

The game started on a balanced note. Both teams wasted good scoring opportunities, but the most relevant such opportunity was wasted by Romania on 15 minutes, when a Turkish defender deflected into the crossbar the ball sent in by Cristian Tanase. The first to score, however, were the guests. On 22 minutes, when the ball reached the Romanians’ box, Burak Yilmaz jumped higher than Romania’s central defenders and his header sent the ball into the left-hand corner of the goal.

Romania had been prepared for a defensive game, yet they had no other choice than to attack. Since Victor Piturca’s lineup was not fit for that kind of game, the guests dominated the first half of the match.

In the second half of the game, however, the manager replaced Gabriel Torje and Ciprian Marica with Alexandru Maxim and Adi Popa, respectively. The move gave the Romanian team a fresh impetus for the rest of the game, and their attacking bouts grew stronger and faster than those of their opponents. Scoring opportunities were quick to appear, but they were much too easily wasted by the Romanians, who on 69 minutes were a whisk away from scoring, as Adi Popa’s ball hit the Turks’ left post.

In the last seconds of the extra time, Turkey’s Mevlut Erdinc scored again, and his team walked away with a precious 2-nil victory.

In preliminary group D, Romania is 4^th-placed. The Netherlands are still top of the table, with 20 points on their record sheet. The Dutch have already secured their qualification to the World Cup. Hungary had the chance of the runner-up position, with 14 points. Third-placed is Turkey with 13 points, on a par with Romania, but with a higher goal-average.

Considering the group’s two last legs, Romania ranks favorite to the runner-up position, the one that actually paves the way for the playoffs. It still has to play against Andorra and Estonia, but from now on the Romanians should try really hard to earn every point they need. Hungary and Turkey will both be taking on the Netherlands, which is a good team and has already booked its ticket for the World Cup. The preliminaries’ last two legs are scheduled for October 11^th and 15^th, respectively.