Romania vs Ukraine LIVE: Euro 2024 result and reaction after goals from Dragus, Marin and Stanciu
Romania 3-0 Ukraine: A surprise victory for Edward Iordanescu’s men gives them control of Group E
Romania stormed to their biggest ever victory at the European Championship with a confident and comfortable 3-0 victory over Ukraine in Munich.
Edward Iordanescu’s men were set up compactly to defend and break on the counter-attack with most of their joy in the first half coming through the outlet of Denis Dragus. Constant pressing on Ukraine’s Andriy Lunin forced the error as the goalkeeper gave the ball away. Nicolae Stanciu then hooked a first time shot into the back of the net to send Romania ahead.
They never looked back. Razvan Murin added a second with an equally brilliant strike from range before Dragus netted a tap-in from a short corner in the second half. Romania go top of Group E ahead of Belgium’s match versus Slovakia and will have their sights set of the knockout rounds now.
Relive the action in our live blog below, as well as upddates from the next match between Belgium and Slovakia:
Romania 0-0 Ukraine
9 mins: Denis Dragus does well on the right side of the pitch to doge away from a tackle and kick start a counter attack. He brings the ball forward before squaring a pass across towards Dennis Man.
Mykola Matviyenko makes the interception and the attack dies out.
Romania 0-0 Ukraine
6 mins: Ukraine have made the better start to this match. Artem Dovbyk almost manages to bring down a long aerial ball but his touch is slightly too heavy which means the ball runs into the box where Florin Nita scrambles out to smother it.
Razvan Marin then foulas Georgiy Sudakov as the midfielder tries to bring an aerial pass under control in the middle of the pitch. Marin charges into Sudakov’s back and knocks him over before protesting his innocence to the referee.
Romania 0-0 Ukraine
3 mins: Close! An early break from Ukraine sees them beat the press and attack on the counter. Mykhailo Mudryk is fed the ball over on the left wing and he dances inside.
He weaves past one, two, three defenders as he looks for a space to shoot before deciding instead to slip a pass into the box where it is intercepted and cleared away.
Kick off! Romania 0-0 Ukraine
With both Romania and Ukraine’s home kits yellow the stadium is awash with bright shirts as the two sets of supporters show their colours.
Romania are the dedicated ‘home’ side today so on the pitch they’re in yellow with Ukraine outfitted in their blue away kit. The noise levels have ramped up massively and this is an excited set of fans.
Artem Dovbyk gets the ball rolling for Ukraine who knock it around the back in the hopes of drawing Romania forward.
Romania vs Ukraine
Here come the players.
Ukraine are the favourites to get the win in this one but Romania’s qualifying campaign was superb and if they can bring that confidence into the tournament they’ll be tough to beat.
Kick off is up next...
Euro 2024: Romania vs Ukraine LIVE
"It is very good and very important for Ukraine to be in this stage. Because all Ukrainians want to be a European nation," Rebrov said.
"Of course now in our country, football is not in first place. There are lots of people dead, lots of kids dead. Now is a very difficult time for Ukraine.
"We want to remind people the war is continuing. We still need support to continue to fight for our freedom."
Ukraine support coming from frontlines
Ukraine manager Serhiy Rebrov said soldiers on the frontlines have asked his team to "show the spirit" of their country when they face Romania in their Euro 2024 opener.
"All the players, me personally, are getting lots of messages from our fighters, from our soldiers, from our friends who are now fighting for the freedom of Ukraine," said Rebrov.
"I am sure they are very proud of us; we are very proud of them. They are saying, when you are here ‘show the spirit of Ukraine’. This tournament is really about the spirit of our country."
Zabarnyi expecting ‘emotional moment’ seeing Ukraine support
Ukraine defender Illia Zabarnyi said seeing the support for Ukraine in the Allianz Arena for this afternoon’s match against Romania will be an "emotional moment".
"For me, it is a great honour to represent Ukraine," he said, "When you see Ukraine flags in the stadium, when you’re just checking the news, what’s going on at home and you understand how it’s difficult to be there.
"You know what times we are going through now. I feel incredible responsibility for my actions but I’m not worried about my game."
Euro 2024: Romania vs Ukraine LIVE
Ukraine’s eight goals in European Championships have been netted by five different players: Roman Yaremchuk (2), Andriy Yarmolenko (2), Andriy Shevchenko (2), Artem Dovbyk (1) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (1).
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