Turkey – Romania

In Istanbul, guests will show their best qualities.

Before the playoff-qualification semifinal between Turkey and Romania, an interesting fact is rarely discussed. Romania became the first opponents of the Turkish national team in its football history in October 1923. Turkey hosted the opponents in Istanbul and left with a 2-2 draw. The Romanian national team itself at that moment had been playing for just over a year. In other words, it had a bit more experience. After 102.5 years, the teams stand in each other's path to the World Cup in North America. Interestingly, but it was in the USA 32 years ago that the Romanian national team delivered its best result in the entire history of the World Cups. Then the great Gheorghe Hagi with his teammates could reach the semifinals, but worse than the Swedes they converted a penalty in the post-match shootout. Romania did not participate in the last six World Cups and, undoubtedly, longs to get there. The draw is fairly manageable. If the visitors win in Istanbul, then on the last day of March in the decisive match they will meet the winner of the Slovakia-Kosovo pair. Turkey in recent decades has not been lucky with World Cup qualification. Since 1954 Turkey has qualified for the World Cup only once, but in Japan and South Korea they pulled off a real upset and finished third. Bookmakers pegged the home team as favorites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 1.43 for their victory. In the group stage of the European qualifying, Turkey competed with Bulgaria, Georgia, and Spain. The competition turned out to be only with the latter, as the Bulgarians and Georgians the Turks hardly noticed. Despite a 2-2 draw in Seville, the second place was taken by Vincenzo Montella's team due to the home defeat to Spain by 0-6. Romania played in a group with four opponents and lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Austria. Finishing third, the Romanians received a second chance in the playoffs based on the Nations League standings. The visitors are rightly considered the underdogs of the match, because in Istanbul visiting teams always have a hard time. However, Romania will not have another chance to fly to North America this summer. In the last five official and friendly matches since 2007, the Romanians have beaten the Turks three times. Let's bet that Mircea Lucescu's players, well acquainted with the Turkish national team, will not embarrass themselves.