In the first match of Group E at Euro 2024, Romania easily defeated Ukraine 3-0, with captain Nicolae Stanciu scoring the tournament’s first goal in Munich.
With just 16 goals in 10 qualifying matches, Edward Iordanescu’s team had a reputation for having few goals going into this tournament. However, on a remarkable afternoon in Bavaria, they managed three goals.
Stanciu scored the first goal in spectacular fashion, taking advantage of Real Madrid custodian Andriy Lunin’s first of two errors to curl a superb finish from 25 yards in off the underside of the bar (29).
Lunin had intended to play from the back, and just after the half, he let Razvan Marin’s speculative shot to swerve underneath his body (53), which gave Romania their second goal.
Four minutes later, Dennis Man crossed the ball for Denis Dragus to convert at close range, played narrowly onside by Artem Dovbyk’s outstretched boot to put Romania ahead 3-0.
It meant that Romania had not scored three goals in a European Championship match since their historic 3-2 triumph over England in June 2000, which was also their sole win in the tournament’s history.
Prior to Belgium’s match against Slovakia in Frankfurt later on Monday, Romania leads Group E.
Ukraine boss Serhiy Rebrov told BBC One: “Unfortunately we lost today, We will analyse the game and talk about what happened but this is not the last game and we will analyse it. We lost in some components of the game and that is why we lost today.
“I think all the players know the pressure. We understood this and we started the game well. We had some mistakes and we will analyse this. We are top-level players and we have to show our maximum.
“We have three games and we have to recover and prepare for the next game which is even more serious than today.”
Romania boss Edward Iordanescu: “I’d like to thank every Romanian everywhere in the world. I know that they were with us today. It was a fantastic effort by my team. If you had any doubts, I think you can believe me now that this is a great team. Congratulations to the lads. It’s just incredible.
“Since I joined the national team, I’ve had difficult moments. It’s not always been easy. We’ve had other big performances. We’ve had golden generations with big performances, but this generation represents the soul. This team has put the biggest effort into everything. As big a heart as this team, nobody has ever had. This generation is limitless.”
“These are emotions that are very difficult to put into words. My family have lived every moment with us. I had to send four cars to pick them up, so I have to thank them for coming with us. My family mean everything to me. Even if I wasn’t coach, my family and I would probably all still be here today.”
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