A courageous Romanian team put up a good fight against Euro 2016 hosts and favorites France in the opening match on Friday, June 10. The difference between the two teams only showed in the end of the game, when France’s magician Dimitri Payet scored a great goal that brought Les Bleus their highly anticipated victory 2-1.

After a goalless first half, Romania started the second half courageously and put some pressure at Hugo Lloris’ goal. Striker Bogdan Stancu again had a great opportunity to score. However, France quickly recovered and moved the game to Romania’s half.

Romanian goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu made a great save but a few minutes later lost a duel with French striker Olivier Giroud, who managed to score the first goal of the tournament, although the goalkeeper asked for a fault.

The Romanian team, however, didn’t give up after the goal and continued to pose problems to the French defense. Midfielder Nicusor Stancu caught a ball in France’s box and was fell after a contact with veteran Patrice Evra. Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai awarder Romania the first penalty of the Euro 2016 and Bogdan Stancu calmly converted it into a goal.

Romania then managed to keep the score level at 1-1 for almost 25 minutes to the despair of the French fans. Even the French players were frustrated and started throwing balls into Romania’s box, which the Romanian defense resolved calmly. However, the match was decided by a superb personal execution of Dimitri Payet, the most dangerous French player in the match.

Overall, Romania will be disappointed with losing the match in the last minutes. However, the team managed to make a better match than anyone expected, which makes the fans wait confidently for the next matches against Switzerland and Albania.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Echipa națională de fotbal a României, Photos by: UEFA)