Iordănescu heralds “new beginning” for Romania after EURO2024 exit

Romania were knocked out of EURO2024 at the round of 16 today at the hands of the Netherlands, ending a campaign that saw them top their group.

Despite a promising start from Edward Iordănescu’s team, they were outclassed on the night by a strong performance from the Netherlands. Cody Gakpo opened the scoring in the first half before Donyell Malen added a brace from the bench.

Reacting to his side’s defeat, head coach Iordănescu said: “Today we ended a great story, which we started two years ago. We continued that story here in Germany along with the fans of the national team. The team gave a great effort, but there is some sadness. We wanted more, but we gave our all. Thank you to my lads, the supporters and Romanians everywhere in the world who supported us.”

“We tried to surprise the Netherlands and I think we did well until the 20th minute. We wanted to cut their pressure, their connections and their line of passes. We were intense and we created the first big chance. But they have quality and managed to imbalance us with their [first] goal. All three goals came from individual actions. Players at top clubs know how to deliver moments.”

Iordănescu reflected on what the tournament meant for Romanian football after an excellent group stage in particular, which followed a great qualifying campaign.

“Romanians need to believe in themselves. If they do, they can produce fantastic things. They need to develop and grow the new generations. They need to take inspiration from these boys and have them as role models, because they gave all they had. These are lessons that we can use. This bond between Romanian people and the national team – it could be a new beginning.

“I want to apologise to all of our supporters for not being able to go further. Maybe, in the future we will accomplish more. And I want to tell them that they are certainly the champions of this Euro, although we are not.”

When asked about the chance of leading this side to a World Cup, the head coach promised nothing (“I only slept like three or four hours per night and now I need to recover, I need sleep”) and mentioned that he needed to spend time with his family. However, he said: “We’ve ended a beautiful story today, but we are left with a lot of inspiration and belief for the future.”

See how victorious manager Ronald Koeman reacted, and follow every game of EURO2024, here on FromTheSpot and on our X account.