In the early morning of July 3, the only two remaining 1/8 finals of the European Cup will be kicked off one after another. Among them, the "Tulip Army" Netherlands, ranked 7th in the world, will face Romania, the "dark horse" of this competition, beating Belgium to top the group. Dutch coach Koeman is expected to lead his team to the last eight with a big win.
The Romanian team is worth only 92 million euros, which is the lowest among the 24 teams participating in this European Cup. The number one star in the team is the central defender Dragusin who plays for Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League, and he is worth 25 million euros, accounting for more than 1/4 of the team's value alone. It can also be seen that the players in other positions in Romania are relatively mediocre.
4141 is the main formation of this Balkan team, Razwan Marin, Marius Marin and the captain of Wuhan Three Towns who played for the Chinese Super League team Wuhan Three Towns are their thunderous midfield combination, and the three of them and the speed center Delegush started all three of Luo's group stage midfield games and covered all four of the team's goals.
Therefore, Romania are both attacking and defending in the middle of the midfield, and long-range shots from outside the box are also their main means of scoring. In the three group games, they had 6-3, 7-7 and 3-6 shots from outside the box and inside the box. The 3-0 win over Ukraine in the opening game began with Stanciu's long-range shot from outside the box.
Romania were also one of the less possession-minded teams at the tournament, having just 29 per cent possession in the 3-0 win over Ukraine, compared to 45 per cent against Belgium and 42 per cent against Slovakia. At the same time, their pass completion rates in three games were 71%, 84% and 69% respectively.
It can also be interpreted from these statistics that when facing teams with similar strength, Romania prefers to play defensive counter-attack, as evidenced by the matches against Ukraine and Slovakia. On the one hand, it reflects that Belgium's strength has declined a lot, and on the other hand, it can also be seen that this Romanian team wants to control their feet as much as possible when facing strong teams, and will not blindly play counterattack with high balls and fastballs.
Facing the Netherlands, who have a luxurious defensive line and a number of fast wingers, the bad news for Romania is that their main left-back Banku is suspended. The 31-year-old has not missed a minute of the team's three group games and his absence will pose a major problem for the team's left side defence.
The veteran Dutch coach Koeman has clearly caught the message of Romania's strength and weakness. In order to cope with the opponent's midfield and the ability to shoot from a distance, the Dutch team will remove the three-midfield formation against Austria in the final round of the group stage, and form a double back of two people, Reinders and Schouten, to strengthen the protection at the top of the penalty area.
Another notable change is that Dumfries and Frimpong will start together, and Xavi Simons is also expected to come on to build a fast attacking and defensive channel on the right, taking turns to tackle Romania's inevitable defensive problems on the left side of the game, and creating scoring opportunities for Depay in the middle and Gakpo in the inside.
Once the Dutch team can quickly break the deadlock on the field and force the opponent to give up the defensive tactics and attack, the many fast horses on the wing of the "Tulip Army" are likely to "beat the opponent" through sharp counterattacks again and again. In the past four meetings, the Netherlands has won all four games, scored 13 goals and conceded only one goal, forming a pressure on Romania, including 4-0 and 4-1 such big scores.
In the previous 6 1/8 finals, except for Spain's 4-1 victory over Georgia, the other 5 games were quite close in terms of scores and scenes. In this game, the Dutch team met Romania, which lacked major generals and played in a similar style, and it is likely to advance to the quarterfinals with a big score.