France vs Romania

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France vs Romania Line-ups

Official line-ups not yet available

Official squad list

 

 

France vs Romania. Match background France are yet to lose a competitive game against opening UEFA EURO 2016 Group A opponents Romania. But recent meetings have been tight. Previous meetings. Four of the sides’ last five competitive games have ended in draws, the exception a 2-0 win for Laurent Blanc’s France at the Stade de France in UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying. Loic Remy opened the scoring in that October 2010 match.  Romania drew 1-1 in their only previous game against France in Saint-Denis, a FIFA World Cup qualifier in September 2009. Didier Deschamps was in the France midfield and Anghel Iordanescu was in his first spell as Romania coach when the teams first met in a EURO ’96 finals game in Newcastle on 10 June 1996 – 20 years to the day before their UEFA EURO 2016 meeting.

Christophe Dugarry’s goal earned France a 1-0 win.

That was Deschamps’ second game against Iordănescu’s Romania; the other game was a 3-1 away win in EURO ’96 qualifying. Lordanescu’s record in four games against France is W0 D1 L3. The sides met in the first match of Romania’s most recent final tournament, Raymond Domenech’s France held 0-0 by Victor Piturca’s Romania at UEFA EURO 2008. The teams in Zurich on 9 June 2008 were: Romania: Lobonţ, Contra, Rat, Tamas, Chivu, Radoi (Dică 90+3), Cocis (Codrea 64), Goian, Nicolita, D Niculae, Mutu (M Niculae 78). France: Coupet, Thuram, Sagnol, Abidal, Gallas, Makelele, Toulalan, Ribery, Malouda, Anelka (Gomis 72), Benzema (Nasri 78).  France and Romania met in the inaugural match at Bucharest’s National Arena – a 0-0 draw in UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying on 6 September 2011.

EURO facts – France.

France have won one and lost one of their previous opening games as EURO hosts. They beat Denmark 1-0 at Parc des Princes in 1984 en route to winning the title, having lost 5-4 to eventual runners-up Yugoslavia at the Parc des Princes in the 1960 semi-finals. France won their first matches as World Cup hosts in 1938 and 1998 (3-1 against Belgium and 3-0 against South Africa respectively), going on to lift the trophy in 1998. The hosts’ 17 opening games at EUROs have ended W5 D6 L6; Italy’s 0-0 draw against the Soviet Union in 1968, won on the toss of a coin, is classed as a draw. France are one of only three sides to have won a EURO as hosts, along with Spain (1964) and Italy (1968).

France’s competitive record at the Stade de France reads W21 D8 L3.

The defeats came against Spain (0-1, 2013), Belarus (0-1, 2010) and Russia (2-3, 1999). EURO facts – Romania. Romania have never featured in the opening game of a final tournament. Two teams have beaten the hosts in their opening game and won a EURO: Greece in 2004 (2-1 v Portugal) and West Germany in 1972 (2-1 v Belgium). Romania are yet to start a EURO with a win; they lost their EURO ’96 opener 1-0 to France, and drew 1-1 with Germany at UEFA EURO 2000 and 0-0 with France at UEFA EURO 2008. Under Iordanescu, Romania qualified for the last major tournament in France – the 1998 World Cup – and breezed through the group stage unbeaten before bowing out with a 1-0 loss to Croatia in Bordeaux.

Romania failed to win at their most recent final tournament, UEFA EURO 2008 (D2 L1), scoring only once.

They have not won in four finals games (D2 L2) since a 3-2 victory against England in Charleroi at UEFA EURO 2000. Coach and player links. Have played together: Hugo Lloris (France) and Vlad Chiriches (Romania) – Tottenham Hotspur, 2013–15 Eliaquim Mangala (France) and Cristian Sapunaru (Romania) – Porto, 2011/12 Claudiu Keseru (Romania) and Dimitri Payet (France) – Nantes, 2005–07 Claudiu Keseru (Romania) and Olivier Giroud (France) – Tours, 2008/09 3 France – Romania Friday 10 June 2016 – 21.00CET (21.00 local time). Match press kit Stade de France, Saint-Denis.

Keseru played in France from 2003 to 2013, representing Nantes, Libourne, Tours, Angers and Bastia. Romania centre-back Dragos Grigore has been on the books at French side Toulouse since 2014, but spent this season out on loan at al-Sailiya in Qatar. Romania’s assistant coach Viorel Moldovan was a Ligue 1 winner with Nantes in 2001, a year after he had helped the club claim the French Cup.

“The less the occasion weighs on the players, the better,” said Didier Deschamps ahead of France’s UEFA EURO 2016 opener against Romania. Our preview has all you need to know.

• Hosts France take on Romania in opening game of UEFA EURO 2016
• Didier Deschamps: “This should set the tone for the whole tournament”
• Anghel Iordănescu: “We are up against one of the best teams”
• Teams met on 10 June at EURO ’96 – 20 years to the day before this encounter
• Follow our team reporters for the inside track: @UEFAcomDavidC and @UEFAcomPaulDZ
  

Possible line-ups

France: Lloris; Sagna, Rami, Koscielny, Évra; Pogba, Kanté, Matuidi; Griezmann, Giroud, Payet.

Romania: Tătăruşanu; Săpunaru, Chiricheş, Grigore, Raţ; Hoban, Pintilii; Popa, Stanciu, Stancu; Keșerü.
Doubtful: Filip (ankle)

Coach quotes
Didier Deschamps, France coach

The less the occasion weighs on the players, the better. We have been preparing for 10 June for two years. It’s important to be back in competition football. Our last official game was the quarter-final against Germany at the World Cup [in 2014]. The others have all been friendlies. The setting is the Stade de France – the opening game – so it is certainly special. This should set the tone for the whole tournament.

Obviously we’re playing in France, but the Romanian team we’re up against will not roll over and they will give their best to achieve a good result. If they want to win this match, they can’t just defend. This team know how to defend but it’s not the only thing they’re good at. I watched their most recent games and they are good going forward. I am expecting them to come with the intention of upsetting us. So it will be an interesting battle over the 90 minutes.

Anghel Iordanescu, Romania coach

This game marks the start of a great competition, the greatest on our continent, the European Championship. We are up against one of the best teams in the tournament, among the favourites. I hope and believe our players will do their best to show everybody that we have a good team, a worthy team capable of putting in a good performance. The objective is to qualify, to get through the group, and make a very good impression at the same time.