a historic moment for Romanian football

Heading into the Netherlands v Romania match the press seems to being having a field-day questioning the effort that the Netherlands will put forward and whether they will intentionally lose the match thus sending France and Italy home early. And while it is true that Marco van Basten must choose a lineup to serve the teams best interest and will be reflective of which players need extra rest as well as deal with Nigel de Jong and André Oiijer who are one yellow-card away from suspension, the Netherlands are one of the most powerful teams in the world and will not be not “rolling-over” in a match. Likely the most obvious substitution for the Oranje will be replacing Ruud van Nistelrooy with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and if having one of the games most feared young strikers up-front is “easing up” then I’m fairly certain you haven’t seen KJH at Ajax. One of major concerns for Romania will be dealing with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar should he get the starting nod. If given the opportunity, I’m convinced his predatory skills will be an enormous problem and he will look to make his mark on the team.

Few considered the Tricolorii advancing to the next round after being drawn into the “Group of Death” (or should we call it the “Raymond and Roberto’s last stand”) yet they stand on the verge of one of the greatest early surprises of the Euros. Cristian Chivu who has swarmed the pitch with an unbelievable work-rate in the first two matches, stated succinctly “this is the most important match for our generation and qualifying from this group would be a historic moment for Romanian football.” To defeat the Netherlands, Victor Piţurcă’s squad will need to beat them at their own game, to push forward and counter-attack at their advances. Watch for Daniel Niculae and Adrian Mutu look to emphatically complete Chivu’s statement with an explosive victory in one of the most aggressive matches we’ve seen in this years tournament.