Former Romania midfielder Aurel Cicleanu, a participant of the 1984 European Championship, said what he thinks about the prospects of his country's national team at Euro-2024. Recall, at the group stage of the tournament Romanians' opponents in the group will be Belgium, Ukraine and Slovakia.
"As for our group at Euro 2024, Belgium is an unattainable favorite in it. Ukraine look the next strongest. Slovakia, I think, are also above us in terms of chances. So Romania can only be considered fourth. But it was evaluated approximately the same way in the Euro-2024 qualifying group, and in the end, it won this group. So everything is possible, even in this group.
As for our opponents, I have seen three friendly matches of the Belgian national team. This team is a very tough nut, one of the strongest at this Euro. If we want to get a point with such an opponent, we will have to score. How we will do this job is another problem, it depends on the team and its coaching staff. At the same time, we didn't know how to score even against Switzerland, and we ended up scoring three times. So in today's soccer everything is possible.
Our starting match at the Euros is against Ukraine. Of course, the start is very important in such tournaments. But even with a draw with Ukraine our chances of getting out of the group will remain open and everything will be possible for us. The Ukraine national team is a force! And it does not matter that it reached the Euros through the playoffs. The current generation of the Ukrainian national team were world champions in the under-20 age group, and in this generation there are players who are worth even 100 million euros. Not to mention that the players of the Ukrainian national team play in the top clubs in Europe. So the Ukrainian national team is also a tough nut to crack. But it does not mean that it has no weaknesses.
Well, the Slovakian national team is a team with an Italian coach at the helm, and its players are rated much higher than the players of the Romanian national team. So any positive performance in this group will be a success," Agerpres quoted Cicleanu as saying.
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