Croatia-Romania is a match in the group stage of the European Under-21 Championship 2023 and will be played on Tuesday at 20:45: lineups and predictions.
Gerarchies now defined in Group B, where Spain and Ukraine are already certain to play in the knockout phase and on the last day they will compete for the first place.
Eliminated instead are Croatia and Romania, who neither scored a goal nor a point in their first two matches. An extremely disappointing European Championship for both, in short. Especially for the hosts, who were unable to take advantage of having the public on their side, Romania being one of the organising countries together with Georgia. The selection led by Emil Sandoi failed to replicate the historic result achieved in the 2019 edition, when against all odds they reached their first semi-final in the continental category event. After a prohibitive debut (3-0) against a battleship such as Spain, Romania were playing for their all against Ukraine on Saturday. But a proud performance was not enough to get the better of Ruslan Rotan’s men, who scored the decisive goal a minute from the end, benefiting from an unfortunate own goal by Dican. In the dock was an attacking phase that once again failed to live up to their ambitions, Romania having failed to score in their last five matches.
A disappointing Croatia
Croatia, initially considered a possible loose cannon, also disappointed expectations. Dragan Skocic’s men had been unbeaten for seven consecutive matches before the European Championships and had scalped England last March.
The Croatian Sego
The defeat in the opening match against Ukraine (2-0), however, brought the red and white chequered selection back down to earth. At that point, a real feat would have been needed against a wild Spain, perhaps the most convincing of the big sides along with England. Croatia, having immediately gone into a disadvantage, searched for the equalising goal for a long time: they did not find it but at least limited the damage, losing ‘only’ 1-0. A step backwards compared to two years ago, when the Young Blazers went all the way to the quarters.
The Prediction
Romania have shown clear limits in ball possession but will perhaps have some more motivation than Croatia, playing in front of their own crowd. We do not expect a spectacular match, clashing two selections that have so far failed to find the path to goal. A draw cannot be ruled out.
Croatia v Romania official line-ups
- CROATIA U21 (5-3-2): Kotarski; Sigur, Franjic, Perkovic, Krizmanic, Sego; Bulat, Prsir, Baturina; Simic, Beljo.
- ROMANIA U21 (4-2-3-1): Tarnovanu; Pantea, Racovitan, Dican, Ticu; Lixandru, Miculescu; Isfan, Munteanu, Petrila; Markovic.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-1
