Romania stun Ukraine with first European Championship win in 24 years

MUNICH – “Big-hearted” Romania won at a major international tournament for the first time in 24 years on June 17 as they beat Ukraine 3-0 at Euro 2024, helped by two errors from goalkeeper Andriy Lunin.

Said Romania coach Edward Iordanescu: “If you had any doubts, I think you can believe me now that this is a great team.Since I joined the national team I’ve had difficult moments... We’ve had golden generations with big performances, but this generation represents the soul. As big a heart as this team, nobody has ever had. This generation is limitless.”

Captain Nicolae Stanciu’s magnificent long-range strike gave Romania, backed by the vast majority of the Munich crowd, a first-half lead in their Group E opener.

Razvan Marin’s shot from distance then skipped under Lunin as Romania turned the screw with two more goals before the hour, Denis Dragus tapping home the third.

It was a disastrous start to the campaign for Ukraine, who must quickly regroup with games to follow against Slovakia and Belgium.

Ukraine players emerged onto the pitch with Ukrainian flags draped over their shoulders in the country’s first game at a major tournament since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

They missed out on qualifying for the 2022 World Cup but secured a fourth successive appearance at the Euro, despite the backdrop of the largest European conflict since World War II.

In 2021, Ukraine reached the quarter-finals under Andriy Shevchenko. But a lot has changed since for a country ravaged by war, with his former striker partner Serhiy Rebrov now in charge.

Rebrov confided that simply taking part in Germany, where more than a million Ukrainians have found refuge, is an important step for the nation.

He said he had received countless messages from people back home, including those fighting on the front line, and that it was up to his team to “show the spirit” of Ukraine in troubled times.

Romania advanced through qualifying unbeaten but had not won in four games this year ahead of their return to the big stage after missing out on Euro 2020. Their last and only previous win at the tournament came when they reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2000.

Ukraine probed early on a warm afternoon at the Allianz Arena without success and paid the price for inviting pressure on themselves that led to a misplaced clearance from Lunin.

The Real Madrid shot-stopper played the ball straight to Dennis Man, who slid a pass across for Player of the Match Stanciu to rifle a sensational 20-metre strike into the top corner.

He said: “It was the goal of my career... To score at a Euro Finals and to win in the manner that we did, it’s just incredible.”

Lunin was immediately consoled by Oleksandr Zinchenko, but he was nearly beaten again minutes later by Stanciu, this time directly from a corner.

After a deflected Man effort fizzed just wide, Stanciu’s inswinging corner glanced off the bar, with the backpedalling Ukraine goalkeeper flapping at thin air.

Worse was to come for Lunin as following a swift Romanian counter-attack, Marin fired a crisp low strike from 25 metres that appeared to deceive him for pace eight minutes into the second half.

Ashley Williams, who captained Wales to the Euro 2016 semi-finals, told the BBC: “You have picked Lunin to start today and they are two individual errors. You can’t get away from that. But it would be harsh to take him out for the next game.”

Dragus effectively wrapped up the victory shortly after when he prodded in as Man knocked the ball across the six-yard box following a well-worked short corner.

Romania goalkeeper Florin Nita saved well from Georgiy Sudakov late on, before substitute Roman Yaremchuk’s lob grazed the bar on its way over, encapsulating what was a day to forget for Ukraine.

Said Rebrov: “All the players know the pressure. We understood this and we started the game well. We had some mistakes and we will analyse this. We are top-level players and... we have three games and we have to recover.”

Ukraine captain Taras Stepanenko added: “I’m really disappointed with our performance. Today, we were not the team like we always were... Sometimes, bad things happen in the most important moments, and this was the case today.” AFP