Romania thrash Russia + Player Ratings

Russia were greeted to an almost empty Ghencea for their international friendly against Euro 2008 hopefuls Romania. The match was to be the second meeting between the two sides in over 20 years. Russian coach Gus Hidding had called up a mostly internal league based squad and looked to the individualistic abilities of players such as Pavlachenko to give Russia the spark it needed.

On the other hand, Romania coach Victor Piturca rang up his usual first team with the exceptions of a few first time call-ups, and long deserved come-backs. When I say long deserved come-backs I am of course referring to Inverness striker Marius Niculae, who hasn’t worn the Tricolored Uniform in over 2 years. The 26 year old striker was quoted as saying in a pre-match interview that he was going to make the best out of this chance, and indeed he did.

45″ After dominating for minutes on end and then being reduced to defending for the final part of the first half, Romania got a lifeline through a Ciprian Marica strike from just outside the 16 yard line. The Vfb Stuttgart striker who has had a recent fall-in-form put it away to give Romania the advantage right before the halftime whistle was blown.

60″ Florentin Petre manages to embarass himself by missing a wide open shot on net, instead the ball bounces off his ankle and in the path of Auxerre lead-man Daniel Niculae who puts it away from the volley. Niculae is used to taking first-time shots and quite frankly when he’s given extra time to plan his shot, it almost always misses, he’s just a spur of the moment player.

75″ From the start of the second half you could tell Marius Niculae was goal-hungry and everyone anticipated what was to come. A great overhead cross from Nicolita brings the ball onto Niculae’s head and he makes it 3-0 for the homeside. A very well deserved goal for the Inverness striker as he was clearly in the running for Man of the Match.

The final substitutions took place in the last 10 minutes of the match, introduced, among others, were: Sepsi (Benfica) and Ogararu (Ajax). An interesting fact to note is that Romania had 4 different captains for tonight’s match due to the constant substitutions.

Overall Romania showed why they finished top of Group G in the qualifiers and a determination that hasn’t been seen in a very, very long time. If things progress the way they have today France, Holland and Italy have many sleepless nights ahead.

Player Ratings: Popa 8; Contra 8 (Ogararu 7); Tamas 6 (Ov. Petre 8); Goian 9; Rat 8 (Sepsi 8); Radoi 8; Chivu 6 (M. Niculae 9); Fl Petre 8 (Nicolita 8); Cocis 8; Mutu 7 (Dica 7); Marica 8 (D. Niculae 9);