New Straits Times

First Dutch goal crushed Romania’s spirit

Romania came out flying against the Netherland­s on Tuesday to the delight of their passionate fans, but Cody Gakpo’s 20th minute goal broke their rhythm and from then on it was backs to the wall and an eventual 3-0 defeat.

“The truth is that after 20 minutes with an individual action they managed to unbalance us and to score and then things did not work as good as we thought,” said disappoint­ed coach Edward Iordanescu. “I regret that we did not manage to elevate ourselves to their level.”

Romania go home proud, however, of their achievemen­ts after topping both their pre-tournament qualifiers and then their group at the finals.

“Today we ended a great story. Of course there is some sadness. We gave our all like every day. Thank you to my boys, thank you to the supporters, thank you to the people back home, to Romanians around the world,” Iordanescu added.

“We have to take inspiratio­n from this. The new generation­s, the children, have to take inspiratio­n from these boys. This unity that we have, this cohesion between the Romanians and the national team, this could be a new beginning.”

The 46-year-old coach said he was exhausted after only sleeping three or four hours a night in Germany and would talk soon with the Romanian football associatio­n about his future.

“I believe that in this moment my family needs me more than the national team,” said Iordanescu, whose father Anghel had three spells in charge of Romania and took them to the 1994 World Cup quarter-finals.

“I am sure that whatever happens with me and with my situation, this team has the power, the strength, to have a good future and we want to reach the (2026) World Cup. It is very important that we have two qualificat­ions in a row.”

Romania’s players were equally disappoint­ed at running out of steam after an encouragin­g start against the Dutch in the last-16 match at the Munich Football Arena.

“I think we started well, we played well the first 15-20 minutes, then their first goal came and it destabilis­ed us to some extent,” said defender Andrei Burca.

“We are disappoint­ed, we wanted a lot from this match.

“This championsh­ip must be a starting point, so that we don’t participat­e in final championsh­ips only every eight years. It is a sad evening for us.

“We want to thank our fans first of all, they were incredible.”