Baluta and Romania advance to Euro 2019 Under 21 semi finals
Tudor Baluta and Romania are into the semi finals of the Under 21 European Championship as Group C winners following a 0-0 draw with France.
Both sides knew that a point would be enough to see them progress to the last four and funnily enough, that’s exactly what they got.
Neither side managed a shot on target in the 90 minutes, much to the anger of the locals in Cesena. Had one of the nations won the fixture, then there was a chance that hosts Italy could qualify for the semi finals as the best runner up from the three groups.
Instead, the draw meant that both Romania and France finished on seven points with Baluta and his teammates top on goal difference. Some fantastic bastard behaviour right there.
Romania did at least try and go for a win at the start. Their vibrant counter attacking football was in evidence again but they failed to really test French goalkeeper Paul Bernardoni who looks about 40-years-old rather than an under 21.
Baluta was named on the bench as Romania sought to protect him from a possible suspension. A yellow card against the French would have ruled him out of the semi final after he picked up a booking in Romania’s previous group game, that stunning 4-2 victory against England.
He was introduced to the action on the hour mark but made little impact. Romania did get the ball in the back of the net with Baluta on the pitch, but it was quite rightly ruled out for a foul on France’s middle-aged number one.
Reigning champions Germany now await Romania in the semi finals. That will be a stern test for Baluta and company, but seeing as they’ve already hammered Croatia and dispatched of a highly rated England side, they’ll go into their match with Dir Mannschaft with nothing to fear. That game takes place this coming Thursday with a 5pm kick off in Bologna.
Anders Dreyer meanwhile got his first start of the tournament for Denmark in their 2-0 win over Serbia. Dreyer led the line for the Danes, setting up Jacob Rasmussen with an excellent corner deliver for their second goal in the 51st minute.
Some VAR controversy followed minutes later after the referee ruled out a goal by Phillip Billing due to offside. VAR confirmed the goal was legitimate, but because the ref had blown his whistle a second before the ball crossed the line rather than waiting for it to go in and the checking with VAR, the decision to disallow the goal had to be upheld.
The Danes were incensed by this as a 3-0 win could have sent them through as the best runners up. In the end though, France and Romania’s stalemate meant that they would have been eliminated anyway having collected six points from their three games.
