Romania has won its third consecutive World Cup qualifier with a 1-0 victory over Turkey in İstanbul on Friday.
Gheorghe Grozav scored from outside the penalty area to put Romania ahead in the 45th minute.With this bitter defeat Turkish national team faced against Romania at home, Turkey’s hopes began to fade away for the 2014 World Cup.
Turkey seemed impotent to dominate the game and to create enough chances to score. The victory put Romania over Turkey in the Group D standings with nine points from three games.
After this match, the Turkish national team will be flying to Budapest on Sunday for game four, which will take place at Ferenc Puskas Stadium next Tuesday. And the Romanians, for their part, will be returning home almost immediately to prepare for the toughie against the Netherlands on that same day.
The Turks, who outplayed and outclassed the Netherlands away in the opener on Sept. 7, were very unlucky to lose 2-0 but rebounded to crush Estonia 3-0 at home in game two on Sept. 12.
The Romanians won 2-0 away over Estonia in game one and walloped tiny Andorra 4-0 at home in week two, meaning Victor Piturca’s men have not conceded a single goal in two outings.
With the Dutch, who also have a perfect record, tipped to win this group, the battle for second place will certainly be between Turkey and Romania.
With victory over Turkey, Romania appears more advantageous in the competition.
( Todays Zaman)
