The second adventure of the experienced Mircea Lucescu on the Romania bench could not have started better. The Bucharest-born coach, who will turn 80 in July, has racked up seven consecutive wins since taking over from Edward Iordanescu last summer. These victories came between September and November 2024 in the Nations League, with his Tricolorii dominating Group 2 of League C and immediately securing promotion after being relegated in the previous edition of the competition.
Of course, it is also worth mentioning the names of the teams beaten by Romania: Kosovo, Cyprus, and Lithuania. But it was not a foregone conclusion, regardless of the strength of their opponents, that Marin and his teammates would fully live up to the predictions made before the tournament. Instead, it was a walk in the park, with Lucescu’s men finishing the group with a perfect record and scoring an impressive 18 goals in total.
Tricolorii, you can do it
This could be an important springboard towards qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, a goal that is far from unattainable given that the draw has been fairly kind to the Romanians. In addition to San Marino, Cyprus, and Bosnia, Romania will face Austria, a national team that is certainly improving but is by no means one of the continent’s big guns.
Lucescu hopes to take the first steps towards a World Cup that the Tricolorii have not played in since 1998 in their opening match against Bosnia, whose only two victories in the last two years have come against the very modest Liechtenstein. These are tough times for the Balkan side, still clinging to the eternal Dzeko: in the Nations League, they collected only two points in a tough group with the Netherlands, Germany, and Hungary, relegating them to League B. There is a lot of work to be done for coach Sergej Barbarez, who is relying on the former Roma and Inter striker and prolific Stuttgart center forward Demirovic in attack. Lucescu, on the other hand, has two significant absences, as he was unable to call up Dragusin and Mihaila.
Odds comparison
Romania’s victory is priced at 1.80 on Goldbet, Lottomatica, and Snai. The “Over 2.5” bet is priced at 2.00 on Goldbet, Lottomatica, and Snai.
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The prediction
Both teams are eager to get off to a strong start in a group where there are no big names and the hierarchy does not seem to be well defined. In any case, we are putting our faith in Romania, which, in addition to the advantage of playing in front of its home crowd, has only had success with Lucescu on the bench so far. We expect at least three goals in total.
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