32′
Nicolae Stanciu has become the first Saudi league player to score in this Euro Cup. At 31 years old, he plays for Damac after also passing through China, meanwhile completing more than 70 caps and 15 goals for his national team. Today, without a doubt, he has scored the most beautiful and most important.
29′
Stanciu’s goal (1-0)
GOOOOOOOLAAAAAAAAZOOOOOOOO FROM ROMANIA!!!!!! OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN!!!! STANCIU!!!! Romania 1 – Ukraine 0. Dennis Man gave the ball to the Romanian top scorer in the qualifying phase and, from Alba Iulia, his hometown, or rather, from 30 meters, outside the area, he hit the post right of Andriy Lunin who has not been able to do absolutely anything to avoid what is, at the moment, THE GOAL OF THE EURO CUP.
Romania
1
Ukraine
0
29′
Assists Dennis Man
25′
RATIU CORRECTS ON HIS OWN STEPS!!! Good U-turn from Stepanenko on Mudryk, permanently lying on the left. The Rayo side has not calculated well, the ball reaches the Chelsea side who enters the area stuck to the lime and who has seen how the Romanian number 2 has cleanly taken the ball away from him, solving his own mistake.
twenty-one’
DOOOOOOOOVBYYYYYYK IT WASEEEEEEEEERAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! We said that the player with the fewest actions in Ukraine was the Girona striker with five touches, because on the sixth he did not think twice about trying from outside the area and sending the ball into the stands. We reached the halfway point of the first half.
19′
Only Matvienko and Zinchenko have touched the ball the same number of times as the Romanian team. Of Ukraine’s 250 touches in these first 20 minutes of the match, only five have passed through the boots of Artem Dovbyk, completely covered and isolated at the point of the attack. First corner of the match for Ukraine!!!
fifteen’
WE CROSS THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE MEETING HOUR AND IT IS PLAYED ON THE TRANSYLVANIAN FIELD!!! Ukraine closes with a defense of three, releasing Zinchenko, who has the support of Mudryk in that area, but at the moment between the lack of precision and the lack of clairvoyance of ideas that Romania allows, the danger is conspicuous by his absence.
eleven’
UKRAINE CLEARLY DOMINATES WITH 85% POSSESSION. At the moment, it lacks depth against a team led by Edward Iordanescu that has very clear ideas. Serhiy Rebrov’s team hits the left side with 53% of its attacks in that area. Sudakov tried but crashed into the tricolor wall.
8′
THE FIRST SHOTS OF THE MATCH ARRIVE!!!! One for each side and without danger. At first, among a swarm of Romanian players, Tsygankov snuck through the middle, shooting and rejecting the defense. And, immediately afterwards, Romania appeared for the first time in the opposite vicinity so that Florinel Coman could rehearse from afar, without problems for Lunin.
6′
What a piece of left wing Ukraine has with Zinchenko from Arsenal and Mykhailo Mudryk from Chelsea!! They have just created a play on that wing in which the left back has centered the area, cutting through the defense before the ball reached Artem Dovbyk.
2′
The first moments of the meeting show us an expected landscape. Ukraine dominating the ball and Romania waiting in their field. At the moment the most notable action has been a long ball towards the unmarked speed of Artem Dovbyk, who could not control it, catching Florin Nita who, like his forward Dragus, plays for Turkish club Gaziantep.
THE MEETING START AT THE ALLIANZ ARENA!!!! Artem Dovbyk touched the ball backwards. Ukraine, which has appeared entirely in blue, will attack in this first half towards the northern end, towards the goal that is to the right of the images when Bayern Munich plays its home games.
Everything is prepared in the Allianz Arena in Munich, whose stands are flooded with yellow shirts, with a Romanian majority. The anthems sound, the emotion on the faces of the Ukrainian players is evident with the flag around their necks. The match referee will be the Swede Glenn Nyberg. The Ukrainian team will put the ball into play in this “yellow” duel. Change of field.
Thus, the Transylvanian team presents itself with a 1-4-3-3 with goalkeeper Florin Nita between the sticks. Defensive line of four with the striker Ratiu and Bancu on the sides, and center backs for the aforementioned Dragusin and Burca. The “Marines” (Marius and Razvan) will be in the midfield with captain Stanciu. On one side Florenil Coman, on the other Dennis Man, and up for the goal Denis Dragus, the player with the most tackles in the Süper Lig.
Opposite, Iordanescu’s “tricolorii” has had the mishap of the loss of Olimpiu Morutan, fundamental due to his changes in orientation of a team that stands out for its compact block and ball delivery. Radu Dragusin, from Tottenham Hotspur, is his big star and we will see Hagi’s number 10 again in a big tournament, this time on the back of his son Ianis, an Alavés footballer. Today, on the bench.
So for this first duel, the legendary coach Serhiy Rebrov has Mykolenko missing and will form a 1-4-2-3-1 with Madrid player Andriy Lunin in goal. Konoplia, Zabarnyi, Matvienko and Zinchenko in defensive line. Double pivot for Stepanenko and Shaparenko. On the right the Gironin Tsygankov, on the left Mudryk, hitch Sudakov. And up there is LaLiga’s top scorer, Artem Dovbyk.
All this to be in his fourth consecutive European Championship, where only in the last edition did he manage to overcome the group stage being one of the best third parties and manage to reach the quarterfinals where England crossed him. Unfortunately, the panorama has changed and there is no greater sporting novelty than fighting for a country at war.
And he did it in a heroic way, in keeping with his current political moment. In the semifinals they were eliminated against Bosnia but in the last five minutes Yaremchuk and Dovbyk worked the miracle (2-1), and in the final against Iceland, Tsygankov and Mudryk overcame the 0-1 deficit at halftime (2-1).
They appear in Germany with overwhelming enthusiasm after having remained undefeated in the qualifying phase in a group where they were ahead of an entire Switzerland. Nothing to do with the hardships of Ukraine, which, while it is true, had to deal with Italy and England in groups, had to go to the play-offs to be in this Euro Cup.
That year was the last time that Romania participated in a European Championship. This is their sixth participation in a tournament where they have only surpassed the group stage once (2000) and where they have only achieved one victory, the unforgettable 3-2 and that Ganea penalty against an England in decline.
It is the first time they face each other in a major international tournament. They have met six times in total, and although in the first three Romania won, in two of the last three antecedents the victory went to Ukraine; always in friendlies like, for example, the last previous match in 2016 when “Zbima” won 3-4 in Turin.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to the fourth day of competition of this Euro 2024 championship that is being held in Germany. Today we are preparing to open group E where the big favorite is Belgium, but in which everything is open to occupy that second direct qualification place, for which Romania and Ukraine are competing right now.
