Tudor Baluta helps Romania Under 21s knock out England
The Romania bandwagon rolls on at the Under 21s European Championships. Fresh from their 4-1 hammering of Croatia on Tuesday, Tudor Baluta and his teammates eliminated much fancied England from the competition with a 4-2 win in Cesena.
Baluta didn’t have quite the same impact as in the previous match in which he scored a fine goal. On this occasion, he troubled the referee’s notebook more than Dean Henderson in the England goal but still played a part in an excellent team performance which again underlined the talent that Romania possess at this level.
England call upon many of the side who were crowned World Champions at Under 19 level in 2017 and as a result were expected to do well in Italy with Aidy Bothroyd having the likes of Phil Foden, Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Demari Gray and one-time Albion loanee Fikayo Tomori among his ranks.
Yet Romania were good value for their win in a game in which all the goals arrived in a manic final 18 minutes. Baluta had already been booked by that point after going through Leicester City’s James Maddison but thankfully for our young Romanian midfielder, nothing came from the resulting free kick.
Baluta then had a sight of goal just past the hour mark when England could only half a clear a corner but his resulting volley was of more danger to boats sailing in the Adriatic Sea some 15 miles away than Henderson’s goal.
Romania took the lead with 76 minutes played from the penalty spot, George Puscas tucking away after Everton’s Jonjoe Kenny slid in late on Florinel Coman.
Kenny had replaced Crystal Palace wonder kid Aaron Wan-Bissaka in Bothroyd’s starting line up after the Wan-Bissaka had scored a quite fantastic own goal in England’s defeat to France in their opening group game. Wan-Bissaka was of course also on the end of two defeats to Brighton and Hove Albion in the 2018-19 Premier League season.
Romania’s lead lasted all of four minutes before Gray equalised with a fierce shot bent into the top corner. Five minutes after that and Romania went back ahead as Tomori cocked up a clearance, presenting the talented Ianis Hagi with an opportunity which he duly took.
Two minutes later and substitute Abraham made it 2-2. Two minutes after that and Henderson made the sort of gaffe that his namesake Wayne performed on a regular basis when he was Brighton number one, letting a Coman shot squeeze in at his near post.
If you’re struggling to keep up, that made it 3-2 to Romania. England poured forward in search of an equaliser but that left them vulnerable on the counter and Romania duly took advantage, Coman scoring an exquisite goal in the third minute of injury time for his second and his team’s fourth. Breathless stuff.
The result means that Baluta and Romania now have one foot in the semi final. They take on France in their final group game on Monday, knowing that a point will be enough to see them top Group C to guarantee a spot in the last four.
Meanwhile, the Albion’s other representative at the tournament, Andres Dreyer, was an unused substitute for Denmark for the second game running.
The Danes fared much better than in their opening defeat to Germany, beating Austria 3-1 in Group B. Joakim Mahele scored twice with Andreas Skov Olsen the other man on target.
