CYPRUS BLANKED IN BUCHAREST

Cyprus fell to Romania, 2-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Bucharest. Two Romanian goals late in the second half proved to be the difference. In now 16 meetings, this was Cyprus’s 12^th loss to Romania, against three draws and only one win. Cyprus falls to fourth place in Group H, still on three points ahead of only San Marino. Bosnia-Herzegovina still leads the group on 9 points, Austria are second with 6 points with a game in hand on the Bosnians. Romania are third, also on 6 points, but with two more games played than Austria. San Marino have no points. Cyprus will next play on the 6^th of September when they visit Austria.

Cyprus visited Romania at the Arena Nationala in Bucharest. Romania rained chances upon the Cypriot goal early and often, as Joel Mall stopped Florin Tanase and then Mihai Popescu on the rebound. Grigoris Kastanos fouled Adrian Sut, VAR checked for a red card, but kept it to a yellow. Mall then denied Dennis Man to keep it scoreless. Popescu had a free header, but put it wide. Cyprus had a rare chance at the other hand, and Anderson Correia found himself alone with the Romanian keeper Horatiu Moldovan, and when Correia let fly, Moldovan was able to get his arm on it and keep it out.

Cyprus hoped to hang on until halftime with the match still level, but it wasn’t to be. A long ball found Dennis Man in stride, and blazed down the line with the Cypriot defense scrambling back. While there was a clear path to the goal, Man instead laid off for Florin Tanase, who fired past a helpless Mall to put Romania ahead.

To add insult to injury, Romania would get one more before halftime. Man worked a give and go with Denis Dragus, who played it back to Man, and this time Man took the shot, and blasted it past Mall, 2-0 for Romania in stoppage time, and that would be the halftime score.

Both sides more or less went through the motions in the second half. Both Marios Ilia and Kastanos missed the net in their bids to put Cyprus on the board, and otherwise, Romania were content to just sit on their 2-0 advantage, and they were able to do just that. They ran out the clock and saw Cyprus off, 2-0 the final score in Bucharest.

Romania(Mircea Lucescu): 12. Horatiu Moldovan(GK), 2. Andrei Ratiu(Captain), 3. Mihai Popescu, 15. Andrei Burca(’73 4. Virgil Ghita), 23. Deian Sorescu, 10. Dennis Man(’82 11. David Miculescu), 21. Vlad Chiriches(’56 6. Marius Marin), 8. Adrian Sut, 13. Valentin Mihaila(’56 22. Ionut Mitrita), 9. Denis Dragus, 19. Florin Tanase(’73 7. Denis Alibec)

Cyprus(Apostolos Mantzios): 1. Joel Mall(GK), 14. Giorgos Malekkidis, 19. Kostas Laifis, 15. Christos Shelis, 6. Giannis Satsias, 7. Anderson Correia(’46 9. Marios Ilia), 8. Chambos Kyriakou(’81 18. Kostakis Artymatas), 20. Grigoris Kastanos(Captain), 23. Ioannis Kosti(’46 5. Charalambos Charalambous), 11. Andronikos Kakoullis(’46 12. Nikolas Koutsakos), 17. Loizos Loizou(’62 21. Marinos Tzionis)

Andrew Mantzas

Twitter: @MantzasNC