Serbia upends Romania 3-2

The Tricolorii World Cup qualifying charge ground to a halt as they fell 3-2 to Serbia in Constanţa. With the loss Victor Piţurcă’s side are a distant fifth in the table requiring an extraordinary turn of events to see them to South Africa.

Asleep at the wheel, Romania showed little confidence before the break with the exception of a few intriguing efforts by Fiorentina’s Adrian Mutu. The lightening quick counter attack of CSKA Moskova’s Miloš Krasić and Milan Jovanović resulted in the Standard Liège striker pouncing on a close range rebound off the crossbar to give the White Eagles the 1-0 lead after seventeen minutes. Serbia came within a whisper of doubling the margin thirty minutes in but Dinamo Bucureşti ‘keeper Bogdan Lobonţ made a crucial save. Disaster struck for Romania moments before the half as Serbia’s in-swinging corner was headed in by Dorel Stoica, sending Romania to the break down 2-0. Between the break Victor Piţurcă seemed to work a bit of magic as Romania came out breathing fire and after a number of close range efforts Adrian Mutu provided Ciprian Marica the ball with the VfB Stuttgart man making no mistake. However Romanian supporters were silenced just before the hour mark as poor clearance off a corner allowed Branislav Ivanović to volley the ball in from close range, returning the two goal margin. Needing attacking spark, FC Timişoara’s Gheorghe Bucur was called upon just past the hour mark and after an extended period of feverish play Universitatea Craiova’s Dorel Stoica made up for the own-goal scoring with seventeen minutes remaining from the work of Adrian Mutu. Down by one Victor Piţurcă called up Marius Niculae of Dinamo Bucureşti for an extra striker and whilst they continued to launch aggressively forward, the leveling goal was not to be found as they lost 3-2.

The bitter pill for all Romanian supporters now is that despite an extraordinary pool of domestic talent qualifying for World Cup seems to be the most unlikely of scenarios. Behind second place Lithuania by five points a victory is an absolute must against Austria next Wednesday.