Romania and Albania sit third and fourth on their group table respectively, but the final Matchday gives them an opportunity to snatch qualification.
France have already gone ahead of the pack with six points, but second spot could be up for grabs as Switzerland sit on four. A loss for the Swiss and a win for Romania could see Anghel Iordănescu‘s men snatch second spot on goal difference. Albania must hope that they can qualify as a best third placed team meanwhile, which is unlikely. Even so, the stakes for this game are incredibly high, especially considering that France and Switzerland play each other at the same time.
Key Battle – Bogdan Stancu vs Etrit Berisha
Bogdan Stancu has been Romania’s only source of goals in this tournament, scoring in both of their matches from the spot. Even though he has only netted penalties, his threat to the opposition goals is a great one as he forced Hugo Loris and Yann Sommer into impressive saves. The team must find goals somewhere and they will no doubt come from Stancu.
This is bad news for Albania, who have conceded three times and are yet to score in this tournament. The Albanians have been toothless in attack and even though they defended well against the French, their efforts were negated by two late goals. Having been denied by two Champions League quality goalkeepers, Romania will be licking their lips at the opportunity to face the Etrit Berisha. The goalkeeper needs to be at the top of his game to keep his side in the match.
Team News
Romania and Albania have no suspensions or injuries to worry about, but both teams will attempt some mixing and matching with their squad. The Tricolorii found more joy in their 4-3-2-1 formation that they used against Switzerland, and it is expected that Claudiu Keseru will be the lone striker.
Albania welcome back their captain Lorik Cana from suspension, who will be a massive boost to their defensive efforts in such an important game. Each team have three players sitting one yellow card away from a suspension, but with the importance of this match there is no doubt that the managers would not risk leaving them out.
Head-to-head
These two sides have met 16 times in their history, with their first match up dating all the way back to 1946 where Romania was beaten 1-0. Since then, Albania has only won a second time (in 1948), while the Tricolorii have won 11 times. Their most recent competitive meeting was in the Euro qualifying rounds in 2010, where they shared two 1-1 draws.
Previous Meeting
They recently met in a 2014 friendly, where Romania won 1-0.
Prediction
The win is absolutely crucial here if either side it to have any hopes of progressing and they will fight tooth and nail for those three points. Both know they have been unimpressive defensively, so expect attacking performances. Despite this, recent history has shown that scoring goals is not the strong point for Romania and Albania, but with a bit of confidence and poor defending there could be a few in this. Romania have proven to be a much bigger threat to Switzerland and France, so there is little doubt that they will want to control the match. Anghel Iordănescu’s men should be able to come out on top, but the question remains as to whether they will score enough to leap frog Switzerland on goal difference should the Swiss lose to France. If Romania can keep their cool, they will be able to score a couple of goals and give them a good chance to finish second in their group.
Romania 2 Albania 0
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