The second adventure of the expert Mircea Lucescu on the bench of Romania could not have started better. The coach, who was born in Bucharest and will be 80 years old next July, has racked up 7 consecutive victories since taking over from Edward Iordanescu last summer. These victories came between September and November 2024 in the Nations League: his Tricolorii dominated Group 2 of League C far and wide, being immediately promoted after being relegated in the previous edition of the event.
Of course, it’s also worth mentioning the names of the teams beaten by Romania: Kosovo, Cyprus and Lithuania. But it wasn’t a foregone conclusion, regardless of the quality of the opponents, that Marin and his team-mates would manage to fully live up to the predictions made before the match. And instead it was a walk in the park for Lucescu’s men, who finished the group stage with maximum points and scoring a total of 18 goals.
Tricolorii, si può fare
This path could be an important springboard towards qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, a goal that is far from unattainable given that the draw was quite kind to the Romanians. In fact, in addition to San Marino, Cyprus and Bosnia, Romania will have to face Austria, a national team that is certainly improving but certainly not one of the continent’s big teams.
The first steps towards the World Cup that the Tricolorii haven’t played in since 1998. Lucescu hopes to take them as early as the opening match against Bosnia, whose only two victories in the last two years have come against the very modest Liechtenstein. These are hard times for the Balkan team, still clinging to the eternal Dzeko: in the Nations League in a prohibitive group with Holland, Germany and Hungary they collected only 2 points, relegating to League B. There’s a lot of work to be done for coach Sergej Barbarez, who is counting on the former Roma and Inter striker and the prolific Stuttgart center forward Demirovic to form a strong attacking partnership. Two heavy losses for Lucescu, who was unable to call on Dragusin and Mihaila.
Odds comparison
Romania’s victory is quoted at 1.80 on Goldbet, Lottomatica and Snai. The “Over 2.5” sign is quoted at 2.00 on Goldbet, Lottomatica and Snai.
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The prediction
Both are keen to start strongly in a group where there are no big names and the hierarchy doesn’t seem to be well defined. In any case, we have faith in Romania, who, in addition to the advantage of playing in front of their home crowd, have so far only had successes with Lucescu on the bench. We expect at least three goals in total.
The probable line-ups for Romania-Bosnia
ROMANIA (4-3-3): Nita; Ratiu, Burca, Chipciu, Bancu; R. Marin, M. Marin, Stanciu; Hagi, Birligea, Alibec.
BOSNIA (4-4-2): Zlomislic; Bicakcic, Barisic, Muharemovic, Kolasinac; Tahirovic, Sunjic, Tahirovic, Gigovic; Demirovic, Dzeko.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-1