WCQ Review: Romania 2 – 3 Serbia

Splendid! The game previously dubbed a ”crucial one” for both sides involved ended in a an extremely important victory for Serbia, who now sit comfortably at the top of Group 7 with 12 points from 5 games, while our eastern neighbors now sit fifth with 4 points from as many games. But, points don’t really tell the whole story: Serbia has played away to Romania, France and Austria, and only has to play away games to Lithuania and The Faroese, with all of the games against direct rivals coming at home. Romanians, on the other hand, already played 3 home games with only one point grabbed, having yet to play away to Austria, France, Serbia and Lithuania.
Now, does this mean that Romania is out of the qualifying race and that the road is now clear for Serbia? About Romania, it seems that their quest to South Africa is almost finished, and it could be said they don’t really jeopardise Serbia’s chances of qualification. However, Serbia has many battles left to fight. Only the winners of the group qualify directly for the World Cup, and it will most likely be a battle beetween Serbia and France for the summit of Group 7. It definetely promises to be an interesting race to the very end, and you certainly don’t want to miss it. Anyway, here’s the quick recap of the previous match:

In the first half, Serbia played an almost perfect match, easily stopping all Romanian attacks without giving them a decent chance to score and scoring two goals themselves. The first was one was scored by Milan Jovanović after Miloš Krasić, himself well played in by Pantelić, hit the post after an excellent run on the right. Standard de Liege man found himself in the right place in the right time and simply tapped in the rebound to give Serbia the lead. It looked like the first half is going to end that way, but Nemanja Vidić had other thoughts, pressuring Romanian defender Stoica to put to ball into his own net after a corner by Krasić (didn’t I tell you to watch out for this guy?). When the whistle was blown, the game looked like a resolved affair: Serbia played and defended very organized, giving the Romanians no chances whatsoever and prudently used all of theirs.

The second half, however, wasn’t going to be the same as the first. Romanians started playing very aggresive and attack-minded, and while the Serbian defense wasn’t going to be breached so easily, Romanian attacks started to bear fruit. Ciprian Marica scored an immensly important goal after a collective defensive blunder, and it looked like the Romanians were on course for an equaliser. The pressure must have taken it’s toll on both teams, because chaos is the best word to describe what has happened on the pitch after Marica’s goal, with both sides playing rather disorganised. After one such chaotic incident in front of the Romanian goal (in which there was even a handball by a Romanian defender), Branislav Ivanović managed to put to ball in the net by a pretty uncharacteristical overhead kick.
With Serbia leading 3-1, it looked like Romanian challenge was indeed over, but our eastern neighbors simply didn’t want to give up. Serbia had to endure wave after wave of Romanian attacks, Antić even subbed a third centre back, previously uncapped Neven Subotić, to replace a striker, Marko Pantelić. It was somewhat ironic that the young Borussia Dortmund man was the one who made a foul from which the Romanian goal came from: Mutu found Stoica in the box, and the Romanian defender didn’t hesitate to score his second goal of the night, this time in the opponent’s net. After the goal, Serbia had to defend rather heroically to survive the Romanians’ intense pressure, but the victory was ours in the end. In a game of two halves, Serbia did just enough to come out on top, and I assure you that even makes this victory sweeter.

I’m somewhat late with this review, and there was a friendly played on wednesday in which Serbia defeated Sweden 2-0, and the U21 also played a couple of friendly games. I hope I’ll be able to write a short report about these games in the next few days. A fantastic football spring for Serbia, really!