Romania’s national football team stood up to hosts France in the first half of the Euro 2016 opening match on Stade de France. The Romanians started the match bravely and had the first big opportunity to score after a corner kick. France’s goalkeeper Hugo Lloris miraculously saved Romanian striker Bogdan Stancu’s shot.

After a balanced first quarter, France took the initiative and started pressuring Romania into their own half. Star strikers Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann has several big opportunities to score, but narrowly missed the target. Romania’s top defender and captain Vlad Chiriches had several imprecise interventions but luckily the French attackers didn’t take advantage of them.

Romanian forward Florin Andone was left alone in front to harass the French defense while most of Romania’s team had defensive duties. Overall, Romania won’t be too disappointed with the halftime score 0-0 while Les Bleus will have to cope with mounting pressure from their supporters in the second half.

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editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Echipa Nationala de Fotbal a Romaniei on Facebook)