Football Flash

A look at the main football events

Florin Orban, 23.03.2017, 13:17

Romania national football squads training stage is well underway in Mogosoaia, nearby Bucharest, ahead of this coming Sundays fixture against Denmark. The match counts towards the 2018 World Cup preliminaries and will be hosted by a stadium in Cluj

The Romanian national team at the moment is 4th placed in Group E, with five points grabbed in four games played, and is in dire need of a win to keep their qualification hopes alive. Romanias trail in the preliminaries includes a 1-all home draw against Montenegro, a 5-nil win home draw against Armenia and a blank draw against Kazakhstan in Astana. In the last fixture they played in November 2016 in Bucharest, Romania was defeated by Poland 3-nil.

In the preliminary stage of the final tournament in 2018, Denmarks record includes two wins and two defeats. Norwegian manager Åge Hareides trainees grabbed a 1-nil home win against Armenia, then another 4-1 win against Kazakhstan, also on home turf, but they sustained a 2-3 defeat against Poland and were also defeated by Montenegro nil-1, at home.

We recall that in Group E, only the team at the top of the table can book a ticket for the final tournament. The runner-up team stands great chances of getting through to the playoffs. Teams in European countries were divided in nine preliminary groups, and the best eight second-placed teams will advance in the qualification playoffs. In Group E, Poland is the odds-on favorite to winning the top position, so the big clash will be for the second place. At the first glance, only Romania and Denmark mattered, yet Montenegro had a spectacular comeback with their satisfactory results away from home. However, Montenegro sustained a defeat against Armenia in November 2016, thus wasting the opportunity to end 2016 top of the table in their group.

(Translated by Eugen Nasta)