Croatian Beats Romania 2:1 Thanks to Dudu´s Assist

Marica gave Romania the lead, Rakitic equalised, and in the second half Eduardo assisted Kranjcar who scored for the win.

Start of match dedicated to killed Cozma

According to predictions, the stadium was not even half full, the Romanian team did not include Mutu or Chivu, which meant that Croatia was the favourite of the match.

An interesting thing to mention is that the match was refereed by Romanian referees, but both football federations agreed with that because they believed that there would be no problems after the match.

The match started with a minute of silence to honour the killed Croatian handball player Marian Cozma, and a point of interest was that Luka Modric inherited the jersey of Niko Kovac, who wore number ten.

At the start of the match the Romanian were the first to threaten with a weak shot, but they also imposed their game on the Croatian side as well.

However, after seven minutes of play the Romanians could not simply move the ball out of their half, because Olic and Petric were very “boring”. The Croatian offense gave Romania’s defence a hard time on a number of occasions, but when they came into the Croatian side, they were a threat, but Croatia’s defence reacted well and Romania only gained a corner.

Marica and Rakitic used the defence’s lack of attention

That was a warning for the Croatians to calm the play down a bit and build attacks to threaten Romania better. This patient play was nearly fruitful when Ivica Olic was alone on the right side and ran into the penalty area. However Romania’s defence saved the situation.

These opportunities by both sides were a sign that the game was starting to open and that the match was going to pass in less of a struggle than the first ten minutes. Petric had the first opportunity to exploit the open game after he found himself alone in front of Lobont. However, the mistake by Romania’s defence was saved by Petric’s poor shot.

Croatia may have failed to score at this point, but Romania did not. An excellent play with fast passes brought Marica into an excellent situation which a player of his class could not miss. Romania took the lead in the 22^nd minute 1:0.

This slightly broke the wings off the Croatian team, but they slowly came back.

Eduardo back after a year

At first glance the harmless looking free kick from a great distance on the left hand side was taken by Rakitic. However, he did it in a sneaky way, and the ball flew towards Lobont’s goal, nobody touched it, and it ended up in the net. Croatia equalised by surprise in the 28^th minute, and clearly let those present know that they intended on winning.

There were no serious threats until the end of the first half, fatigue was visible on the main players on the field, because of which both coaches sent a large number of players to warm up.

Croatia brought in two players at half time: Robert Kovac and Kranjcar, whilst Romania brought in Ogararu, Nicolita and Nesu.

Even though these new players should have brought some freshness into play, the match was somehow filled with lethargy. However, when Olic was replaced by Eduardo da Silva in the 61^st minute, expectations rose.

After more than a year he is playing for the Croatian team.

Kranjcar scores after assist by Eduardo

Eduardo showed just how psychologically and physically prepared with his slide tackles in the first minutes on the field, and in one of the next plays set Rakitic to work, just like he did in his best days. However, the striker for the unexpected goal was not concentrated enough, and the ball went over his leg.

All those substitutions brought some confusion into the two teams, but to prove themselves to their coaches, the new players gave their best on the field.

It was also a newcomer that scored, Niko Kranjcar in the 75^th minute. However, it is interesting how the goal occurred. After a corner shot there was a crowd in Romania’s penalty area, Corluka and Eduardo were in the crowd, only for Eduardo to push the ball to Niko who was alone, who scored from a few meters distance.

After that Romania created strong pressure, but because that is not their game, Croatia had another opportunity from a counter attack, which could have increased the lead. However, the Romanians did not open up too much and there were no larger opportunities for Croaita. Everything flowed towards Croatia’s minimal win.

Important win for raising self confidence

The entry of Varga who replaced Marica put a bit of life into the game. However, what is especially interesting is the fact that for the first time in 30 years, a second league player played for the Romanian national team. This is how Varga entered history.

The Romanian referees “stretched” the match by five minutes for his team, which made the Croatian coach Slaven Bilic laugh, because there was no reason for that. However this did not help the Romanians and Croatia took the important win.

ROMANIA: Lobont (Pantilimon from 80th), Contra (Ogararu from 46th), Rat (Nicolita from 46th),  Tamas, Petre (Nesu from 46th), Radoi (Goian from 74th), Petre, Codrea (Bourceanu), Marica (Varga from 87th), Costea (Bucur from 61st), Cocis (Tames from 80th). Coach: Victor Piturca.

CROATIA: Pletikosa, Krizanac, Simunic (Kovac from 46th), Corluka, Pranjic (Cale from 70th), Juric, Modric (Vukojevic from 61st - Pokrivac from 80th), Srna, Rakitic, Petric (Kranjcar from 46th), Olic (Eduardo from 61st). Coach: Slaven Bilic.