Romania have returned to European Championship football in guns-blazing style with a historic victory over Ukraine in Munich.
Edward Iordanescu’s side failed to qualify for Euro 2020 and had only scored three goals in a Euros match once before — during their famous 3-2 win over England at Euro 2000.
But in Munich, they got their Euro 2024 campaign off to the perfect start courtesy of goals from captain Nicolae Stanciu, Razvan Marin and Denis Dragus.
Stanciu,33, opened with scoring with a sensational goal against Ukraine in the 29th minute.
It was Romania’s biggest ever win in European Championship football.
Edward Iordănescu, the first coach to lead Romania at a European Championship since his father Anghel in 2016, hailed his players as a “generation of soul.”
“A fantastic effort by my team. If you had any doubts, you can believe me now that this is a great team,” said Iordănescu. “We have had golden generations. But this nation does not represent any metal, it is the generation of soul.
Ukraine head coach Serhiy Rebrov gave a curt assessment, after a painful opening to their European Championship:
“Unfortunately we lost, we will analyze it and talk with the players. But this is not the last game for us. I’m sure we made some mistakes and we lost in some components of the game, and that’s why we lost,”he said.
“I felt we started well. But we had some problems and unfortunately at the Euros, the teams have top players and we have to show our maximum if we want to get points here,” he added. The transmission of the game was interrupted in Ukraine, leading to some fans blaming it on Russia.
That next game is in Dusseldorf on Friday against Slovakia, who kick-off against Belgium shortly.
Romania 3-0 Ukraine
- Possession: 29% — 71%
- Shots: 9 — 13
- On target: 5 — 2
- XG: 1.10 — 0.55
- Blocked shots: 2 — 6
- Duels won: 37 — 42
- Dispossessed: 9 — 5
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