A promising generation of Romanian football

a promising generation of romanian football Romania lost the semifinal against Germany but remain one of the most outstanding teams at the European Under-21 Championship.

Romania played well and dominated the defending champions Germany in the                 first half of the semifinal of the European Under-21 Championship hosted by Italy and San Marino. The match was played in Bologna in searing heat, with which the Romanian players coped well for half a match. By the second half, however, they were drained physically and Germany came back into the match from 1-2 at half-time to win 4-2, scoring the decisive goals in the final moments of the match.


Commentators and supporters agree that the young Romanian side put on a very good performance in this match and had an overall remarkable tournament. Suffice it to say that Romania qualified for the semifinals having won what everyone agreed was the most difficult group, after two wins, against Croatia 4-1 and England 4-2, and a goalless draw against France, a result that allowed both sides to advance to the next stage. Romania may have lost the match against Germany, but they booked their ticket to the Olympic Games after 56 years, not to mention that they have managed to coagulate a team with a promising future, a team that achieved a historic result by making it to the semifinals of a European championship in which they were on a par with the three sides that have won the recent editions of the Over-21 World Cup, namely Spain, Germany and France. Their success stands in contrast with the rest of Romanian football, both the national side and the clubs. Here's the line-up of Romania's Under-21 side: Ionuţ Andrei Radu, Cristian Manea, Ionuţ Nedelcearu, Alexandru Paşcanu, Florin-Bogdan Ştefan, Tudor Băluţă, Alexandru Cicâldău, Dennis Man, Ianis Hagi (the son of the former Romanian international Gheorghe Hagi), Andrei Ivan and George Puşcaş (the team's top scorer).


Gheorghe Hagi, the founder and financier of the football academy that trained most of the players in the Romanian under-21 side, believes this golden generation is better than the one he was part of 25 years ago and which is known as "the golden generation". "They have their entire future ahead of them, I hope they'll have beautiful careers and that they'll play for Romanian sides. We must congratulate them and encourage them because they are young and need support and confidence in order to continue to have outstanding results. They were very close to making it to the final, they fought as equals with Germany. This generation has surpassed us, we never made it to a semifinal", said Hagi.


The manager of the Romanian under-21 side, the former international player Mirel Radoi, says the players should be proud of their achievements at this tournament, which will take them to next year's Olympic Games in Tokyo. "I will cherish the memory that we finished in the last four, that we had dozens of thousands of people supporting us in the stadium and several million in front of their TVs, that people who did not have much faith in us have realised that we can have some beautiful results", the Romanian manager said.



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Publicat: 2019-06-28 13:50:00
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