Courtesy: UEFA.com

Practice makes perfect for Romania

Wednesday, 24 January 2007

by Paul-Daniel Zaharia

from Romania

Before they opened their UEFA European Futsal Championship campaign, Romania coach Zoltán Jakab insisted: "We are obliged to win our preliminary group. It is a must." Winning all of their Group B matches by at least five goals ensured they did just that, and Jakab is now aiming for a place in the finals.

Coach delighted
Following on from CIP Deva's great form in the UEFA Futsal Cup, Romania staged the mini-tournament in the city and defeated England 9-2, Bulgaria 8-3 and Latvia 7-1 to move into the main qualifying round, where they will play Group G hosts Slovenia, Belgium and Moldova from 22-25 February for a place in Porto this November. "Honestly, I did not expect to obtain qualification so easily," Jakab told uefa.com. "What was very important is the fact that in the last three years we have had around 60 friendly matches, most of them with the same group of players. And also very important was that, before the Deva matches, we had the opportunity to have a five-day training camp."

Second chance
Romania made progress from the preliminary round on their debut in the last edition of the competition, in January 2004 - beating Bulgaria and Kazakhstan and drawing with Armenia - but Belarus, Ukraine and Slovakia proved too strong in the next stage. Romania had only been playing internationals since June 2003, and had never met that trio before. In contrast, their final qualifying round opponents this time, Moldova, have taken on Romania on nine occasions, and Jakab's nation lead 6-1 in wins. And while Ukraine had been runners-up in the two editions prior to the 2004/05 competition, and were to reach the semi-finals, none of Romania's rivals next month qualified last time around, though Slovenia were unlucky to have been up against Spain, who they held 3-3 only to go out on goal difference.

Slovenia 'favourites'
"We don't have to think that we are outsiders, despite the fact that we are fourth seeds," Jakab said. "We know the Moldovan team very well, we know that Belgium are much more dangerous at club level, thanks to foreign players, but still they are tough opponents, but the favourites are Slovenia, especially because they are hosts."

Suspension
Belgium, who have qualified twice since the first full-scale finals in 1999, are Romania's first opponents and Jakab's team will meet them without their leading scorer with seven goals in Deva, Gabriel Molomfalean, through suspension due to two yellow cards in the preliminary round, while three others are on a booking. Considering those circumstances, Jakab mused: "Being ranked third would be so-so, finishing second would be OK and qualifying for the final tournament would be very good. Anyway, we will need some luck, even though, and I have to admit this, the group is the most open of all the groups of the qualifying round. We are not the favourites, but it's our aim to take our chances and to qualify. We are confident."



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com