Romania – Belarus

The Romanian team will prove their superiority over their rivals

After the opening round of European qualification in Group I, the opponents for the forthcoming match in Bucharest are at different poles of the table. The Romanians won in Andorra la Vella on Saturday, with as much effort as they needed. Edvard Iordanescu's side scored the first goal against the midgets on 35 minutes, doubled the lead early in the second half, and following an Andorran suspension on 61 minutes brought the game to three points. Belarus played their home game against Switzerland in Novi Sad, Serbia. From the very first minutes of the game, the gulf in terms of quality between the two opponents began to show. Steffen scored three goals against Kudravec in the first half, before Jaka and Amdouni sealed the 5-0 win for the Swiss in the second half. Before the meeting between the two sides in Bucharest, bookmakers had placed the home side as favourites to win with an odds of 1.38. The Romania national team failed to qualify for the 2021 World Cup, finishing only third in Group J after Germany and Northern Macedonia. Last year, under Iordanescu, Romania suffered another setback. In the third group of the Liga B of the Nations League, the team finished last, tied with Montenegro and only one point behind Finland. It should be noted that in September, the Romanians showed clear progress compared to the June encounters, scoring four points in two games. The Belarusian team has become one of the worst teams in Europe in recent years. In the 2021 World Cup qualifiers, the Belarusian team finished last in one of the weakest qualifying groups, trailing even Estonia. The team's troubles continued in 2022, when they failed to win even once in the same company as Slovakia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, leaving them in Liga D with teams of the level of Gibraltar and San Marino. The hosts have a unique opportunity to start the qualifying tournament with two wins and are in a good mood to prepare for matches against their direct rivals. The Belarus national team is a comfortable opponent to realise such ambitions.