Romania’s football national team coach Edward Iordanescu told a press conference on Tuesday evening, held after the defeat with the Netherlands, 0-3, and the elimination from EURO 2024, that regardless of him staying or not at the technical management, the national team can qualify for the next final tournament, the 2026 World Cup.
„I am positive that Romanian football has recovered a solid national team. It is a widely well-formed team, although there are some things that can be improved. There are adjustments to be made, nevertheless the team has a further growth margin and I am sure that regardless of what happens with me, with my situation, this team has the power and knows what is the path to continue to bring performance. (…) It is very important that the national team managed two qualifications, it is unbelievably important,” the coach said.
„The fact that so many beautiful things have happened in the past two years at the national team, with so many joys, should give us hope. From here on, I am saying it in all confidence, the national team knows its path, the national team knows what it has to do, the national team can grow further, the national team has developed a spirit that will not be lost anymore,” he added.
Edward Iordanescu believes Romania’s national team lacked pragmatism and efficiency to get ahead at EURO 2024.
„We made assessments and we knew there would be matches when we could not create more than two or three opportunities, at least for our status. So we were aware that we had to be very efficient and pragmatic. We managed this with Ukraine and we won in score. Had we been as pragmatic with Belgium we could have come back, if we were so pragmatic today with the Netherlands we could have led or even make a return. It is a reality that I cannot challenge. We must learn from it, our football must learn from it and maybe start even this summer with our club teams involved in European competitions,” the manager explained.
Romania’s national team left the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship hosted by Germany, after it was defeated in the round of 16 by the Netherlands team 3-0 (1-0) on Football Arena in Munich, on Tuesday evening.
AGERPRES
