Romania have a familiar-sounding manager and a potential star that may not start their matches. Their squad has lacked playing time for their clubs and they have struggled to score goals. And that is before you get to the geopolitics…
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The manager
The name of Romania’s coach might ring a bell. Probably not from his playing career: Edward Iordanescu was a journeyman midfielder who shuttled around a series of relatively minor Romanian clubs. Maybe not even for his coaching career either: he won the league with CFR Cluj in 2021, but otherwise there’s not much that would stand out to an outside observer.
Rather, the name might ring a bell because it also belonged to one of his predecessors. Iordanescu is the son of Anghel Iordanescu, who had three spells in charge of the national team, most notably guiding them to their best performance when they got to the quarter-finals of the 1994 World Cup.
So Iordanescu Jr is inevitably linked to and sometimes compared unfavourably with the relative glories of the past, which is probably quite unfair — although he could probably do without his dad offering public strident opinions about squad selection, as he has done a few times. After all, he did get them to this tournament with a young and relatively limited group of players, unbeaten in qualifying after recovering from a deeply unpromising start to his tenure when Romania were relegated to Nations League C.
Ianis Hagi has a legendary father (Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)
He also attracts some criticism back home for a generally cautious approach to games, often playing with a nominal 4-3-3 that is really a 4-1-4-1 a lot of the time, something perhaps reflected in their relatively meagre attacking record: they scored 16 goals in their 10 qualifiers, six of which came against Andorra.
The household name in waiting
Romania’s most important player remains captain Nicolae Stanciu, their chief source of goals in qualifying despite a modest last few years at club level (he moved from Wuhan in China to Damac in Saudi Arabia last year), and their most famous to many outside Romania will be Tottenham centre-back Radu Dragusin.
However, their breakout star in Germany might be winger Florinel Coman. As a youngster a few years ago, he was somewhat reductively dubbed ‘the Romanian Mbappe’ and linked with Manchester City, but he has remained in Romania and enjoyed a brilliant season with FCSB (the club that emerged from the ashes of Steaua Bucharest), scoring 18 goals from the left flank. Indeed, he was due for a lucrative move to Qatar this summer, but the ever-eccentric FCSB owner Gigi Becali appears to have put a stop to that one after objecting to how the transfer fee would be paid.
It’s not guaranteed Coman will start games initially, with Denis Dragus often Iordanescu’s favoured option on the left in qualifying, but given the game plan will almost certainly involve sitting back and relying on quick counter-attacks for goals, Coman could catch the eye when he does play.
Strengths
The key marker of Romania’s progression from that sticky start under Iordanescu has been the strength of their defence. They conceded just five goals in their 10 qualifying games, with a pretty settled back four playing in front of goalkeeper Horatiu Moldovan, who has seemingly remained sharp despite not playing a single minute for Atletico Madrid after moving there in January. Three draws could be enough to qualify and with a backline this strong, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Romania got them.
Weaknesses
Perhaps the biggest concern is how little their key players have played this season, the second half of it in particular. Dragusin has barely featured for Spurs since moving from Genoa in January, Moldovan has been Jan Oblak’s redundant understudy in Madrid, and there was great excitement back home that Ianis Hagi (the former Rangers midfielder and son of Gheorghe) started two of Alaves’ last three games having been restricted to the odd substitute appearance since the turn of the year.
It’s not just a rustiness thing that is causing concerns: Iordanescu was forced to take Dragusin off at half-time in their friendly against Colombia in March because he was worried about the prospect of an undercooked player sustaining injuries. “That’s how it is when you don’t play,” shrugged Iordanescu at the time.
Dragusin will be a familiar name for Tottenham fans (Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)
International experience could also be an issue: only two members of Iordanescu’s squad (captain Stanciu and striker Denis Alibec) have played at a major tournament before, whereas their group opponents were all at Euro 2020, so have plenty who know the ropes.
Thing you didn’t know
The number of Romania’s recent and upcoming opponents for whom football isn’t necessarily the biggest concern, or for whom there are broader geopolitical issues at play, is pretty remarkable.
In qualifying, they were drawn in a group with Kosovo, who they don’t recognise as an independent nation. Their game in Bucharest in 2023 had to be stopped for almost an hour after what was described as “provocative chanting” from the home fans, which included holding up a banner that said “Kosovo is Serbia”, as well as lighting pyrotechnics and pelting the pitch with objects.
They were also drawn with Belarus, who since their country’s involvement with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 were allowed by FIFA to compete but banned from hosting ‘home’ games or in front of a crowd. This meant the match against Romania that should have been played in Minsk was actually held behind closed doors in Budapest.
Then, in November 2023, they were due to play in Israel, who after October 7 and the ongoing war in Gaza were also not allowed to play at home, so again it was off to Budapest. Could the fact that half of their opponents weren’t able to play at home have been an advantage to Romania? Quite possibly.
And finally, for the final tournament, they were drawn in a group with Ukraine, another side unable to play games in their own country, which won’t be a factor in Germany but completes a remarkable set of circumstances that has seemed to unwittingly put the Romania team in the middle of some pretty serious geopolitics.
Expectations back home
In theory, expectations should be relatively modest: Romania didn’t qualify for the last Euros and haven’t been at a World Cup since 1998. The days of their ‘golden generation’ of Hagi Snr, Gica Popescu, Illie Dumitrescu and Dan Petrescu are long gone, but the enthusiasm for the national team remains. Expect the Romanian fans to be out in force, particularly as they tend to completely set aside club loyalties when it comes to the national team, with FCSB and Dinamo Bucharest fans reaching across the divide for the greater good. Qualification for the knockouts will be seen as a par performance.
Romania’s preliminary squad
Goalkeepers: Florin Nita (Gaziantep), Horatiu Moldovan (Atletico Madrid), Stefan Tarnovanu (FCSB), Razvan Sava (CFR Cluj).
Defenders: Nicusor Bancu (Universitatea Craiova), Andrei Burca (Al Okhdood), Ionut Nedelcearu (Palermo), Adrian Rus (Pafos), Andrei Ratiu (Rayo Vallecano), Radu Dragusin (Tottenham), Vasile Mogos (CFR Cluj), Bogdan Racovitan (Rakow Czestochowa).
Midfielders: Nicolae Stanciu (Damac), Razvan Marin (Empoli), Alexandru Cicaldau (Konyaspor), Ianis Hagi (Alaves), Dennis Man (Parma), Valentin Mihaila (Parma), Marius Marin (Pisa), Darius Olaru (FCSB), Deian Sorescu (Gaziantep), Florinel Coman (FCSB), Adrian Sut (FCSB), Constantin Grameni (Farul Constanta).
Forwards: George Puscas (Bari), Denis Alibec (Muaither), Denis Dragus (Gaziantep), Daniel Birligea (CFR Cluj).
(Top photo: Coman with the Romanian SuperLiga trophy – Vasile Mihai-Antonio/Getty Images)
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