Romania World Cup Information

Romania is one of only four national teams, the other three being Brazil, France, and Belgium, that took part in the first three World Cups.

However, after that performance, they only qualified for 1970, 1990, 1994 and 1998 editions. Their finest hour came at the 1994 World Cup where Romania, led by Gheorghe Hagi, reached the quarterfinals, defeating Argentina on their way before losing to Sweden on penalty shootouts.

At the Euros, Romania's best performance was in 2000 when they advanced to quarterfinals from a group with Germany, Portugal and England before falling to eventual runners-up Italy.

Romania's Recent Record in the 2000s

Romania failed to qualify for the first three major tournaments. They drew Slovenia, who had been surprise qualifiers for Euro 2000 in a playoff for a place in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. A narrow 2-1 deficit - having led through a Marius Niculae goal - after the first leg in Ljubljana was not irretrievable. With fans' hero Gheorghe Hagi now coaching the side they were confident of getting the win they needed in Bucharest against the Balkan upstarts, but Slovenia took the lead before the hour through Mladen Rudonja. Right wing-back Cosmin Contra quickly equalized but Romania could not find the goal they needed to force extra time and Slovenia, with maverick manager Srečko Katanec, were in a major tournament again.

Romania were confident of qualifying for Euro 2004 in Portugal, drawn in Group 2 with seeds Denmark, Norway, Bosnia-Herzegovina and minnows Luxembourg,with Anghel Iordanescu back as their coach. Despite a good start - a 3-0 win away to Bosnia in Sarajevo, Romania stuttered. Steffen Iversen's late goal gave Norway a surprise win in Bucharest and they were stunned at home by the Danes, 5-2, with Thomas Gravesen scoring a spectacular goal from around fifty yards out, despite leading twice. They recovered slightly, completing a double over the Bosnians and getting a point in Oslo, but conceded a cutting injury time equalizer in Denmark to draw 2-2. It was decisive, as they now required Norway to fail to win at home to Luxembourg to stand any realistic chance of qualifying. Eventually, the Danes got a point in Bosnia to scrape through a tight group, with Norway going to a play-off with Spain.

Romania were put in a massive group for the qualifying tournament for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Holland and Czech Republic were favourite to qualify, then ranked first and second in Europe. Early wins over Finland and Macedonia were unconvincing, and they were some way behind the two leaders by the time they earned a good 2-0 home win over the Czechs. They finished third behind the Dutch and the Czechs and missed out on another major tournament.

Romania were drawn in a group with group favourites Holland and tough opponents Bulgaria for the Euro 2008 Qualifying. However on 17 October 2007, Romania became the fourth team to qualify for Euro 2008. This the team's first big championships since Euro 2000, 8 years before. Victor Piturca also qualified Romania for EURO 2000, only to sit back and let Emerich Jenei coach the team in the final tournament. This time,however,he stayed. It was the first time he coached a national team in the final stages of a tournament.

They were drawn in the so-called "Group of Death", with their old "friends" Holland (they played each other both in the EURO 2008 qualifying group and in the 2006 World Cup qualifying group), Italy, the current world champions and France, runners-up in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. They started with a sluggish 0-0 draw against France, favorite Italy was soundlly beaten by Holland,3-0. In their next game against Italy, Adrian Mutu, playing for an Italian team, Fiorentina, opened the scoring early in the second half. Their lead was a very short one, as Christian Panucci scored a minute later, with the aid of a corner kick. Nearing the end of the match, Daniel Niculae obtained a penalty for his team, Buffon saved the shot from Mutu, leaving Romania with two points and needing a win against towering Holland, who eradicated France 4-1 on the same evening. Holland beat Romania 2-0 in the final game of the group, which meant that Italy joined Holland in the quarter finals and Romania finished 3rd, ahead of France.