review of Latvia match

With Adrian Mutu ruled-out because of his recent elbow injury, Victor Piţurcă awarded Florin Costea of Universitatea Craiova his first International call-up. However the Tricolorii were dealing with considerable absences from the recent Euro squad including Cristian Chivu, Daniel Niculae, Nicolae Goian and Răzvan Raţ.

It was a tight tactical match, played mostly in the midfield without significant scoring opportunities that was decided from the penalty spot at the fiftieth minute by Nicolae Dică (Catania) to give Romania the 1-0 victory.

Should match statistics be posted by the Federaţia Română de Fotbal or FIFA I will post them. However with with World Cup qualifying starting in just over two-weeks against Lithuania in Cluj we’ll begin to look at the road to South Africa.