Romania have kicked off their Euro 2024 campaign with a resounding victory over Ukraine in Group F at the Allianz Arena, MySportDab reports.
It turned out to be a disappointing game for the Ukrainians who went into the game as favourites and wielded a bulk of the possession from the start.
Romania got their game plan in order, holding off the dominant opponents with low blocks while waiting patiently to pounce on blistering counters.
A minute minute before the half-hour, the Romanians got the better of their opponents. The team’s captain Stanciu latched on a costly error by Ukrainian goalkeeper Lunin to fire the Romanians into the lead.
Despite going down by a lone goal, the Ukrainians maintained a steady flow with the game, hoping to find a leveller but it was a deadlock in the opponent’s half. They struggled aimlessly to find an equaliser but failed.
They ended up going into the break with the one-goal deficit with Romanians defying the pressure to stay on the lead.
In the second half, Ukraine continued on their dominant display and were looking set to nail home an equaliser before their comeback hopes suffered fatal bruises.
Against the run of play, Romania scored two quickfire goals, four minutes apart, in the 54th and 57th minute. Marin doubled the lead for Romanians while Dragus extended it to make it 3-0.
The quick second-half double was a final dead blow for Ukraine’s comeback hopes. Despite having over 30 minutes to play for, they failed to even find a consolation as Romania held on to secure an unlikely 3-0 victory.
Ukraine will be hoping to bounce back from the loss when they take on Slovakia on Friday in their second group game while Romania will relish the challenge against Belgium in their next clash on Saturday.
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