Euro 2024: Romania vs Netherlands Preview, Odds, Predictions

Romania plays Ronald Koeman's Netherlands in a pivotal match at the Allianz Arena this Tuesday, kicking off another round of UEFA Euro 2024 action. With their strong performance this year, the Netherlands have a little edge entering this match.

Romania x Netherlands Team News

Romanian manager Iordanescu has to make an unwelcome defensive change because left-back Nicusor Bancu has been cautioned twice in the group stage against Slovakia.

On the right, the two leading candidates to replace Bancu, Vasile Mogos and Deian Sorescu—who are more at ease in an attacking role—may be selected because of their defensive prowess, moving Andrei Ratiu to the left.

Better news: two-goal man Marin has resumed full training after a short stint on the sidelines due to overload, and Iordanescu has the ideal attacking conundrum with Ianis Hagi, Dennis Man, Florinel Coman, and Valentin Mihaila fighting for two slots either side of Denis Dragus.

On the other hand, every Dutch soldier ought to be ready for selection in Munich. However, after just 35 minutes of the last group loss to Austria, Joey Veerman's sacrifice calls for a tactical adjustment in midfield.

Recalled star Simons will force Tijjani Reijnders into a more profound role alongside Jerdy Schouten, who would miss any quarterfinal if he is cautioned on Tuesday. The P.S.V. Eindhoven midfielder, who cut a dejected figure on the bench, will undoubtedly drop out for Simons.

Much sought after After a short illness, Bologna striker Joshua Zirkzee is back to full training, but Memphis Depay's place in attack is safe as he chases down Robin van Persie's men's record of 50 goals.

Head To Head And Previous Matches

A few eyelashes should have been batted if one had been told before the competition that Romania and the Netherlands would win their groups and the other would slip through in third place. Still, the Allianz Arena competitors' order was different than anticipated.

For the first time in the men's European Championships history, Romania, Ukraine, Belgium, and Slovakia won one, drew one, and lost one of their games to finish with four points.

But Romania's better goals scored in total saw the Tricolours win the section owing to their incredible three-goal victory against Ukraine and scoring tie with Slovakia on the last day when Razvan Marin scored his second goal from the penalty spot.

Romania had last advanced past the group stage of a European Championship in 2000 before falling at the first hurdle in the 2008 and 2016 editions. With this, Romania broke a 24-year exile from the knockout stages of major competitions.

Though they advanced directly to the quarterfinals and lost to Italy, the Tricolours did not have to fight through a last-16 match that year; history is clearly against them.

Romania has little cause for optimism, having won just one of their previous seven games in all competitions. Still, their third-place saving grace highlights that the Tricolours' next opponents have yet to perform to the standards they anticipated in Germany.

Ronald Koeman's team was left to lament Xavi Simons's contentiously disallowed goal in their scoreless draw with France after depending on Wout Weghorst, essentially the big man up top, to complete their comeback against Poland before losing 3-2 to Austria on June 25.

Oranje trailed Ralf Rangnick's team twice, and twice they pulled Das Team back, but an 80th-minute goal by Marcel Sabitzer guaranteed Austria would win Group D, drop France to second, and leave Koeman's men to qualify as the best bronze medallists.

But with Italy now emptying their lockers, the Netherlands are the only team remaining in their eight-nation path to have won the men's European Championship, so the Dutch should indeed consider the benefits of not being in the same knockout section as Belgium, Spain, Germany, and Portugal in the knockout rounds.

Oranje had also lost just one of their previous 13 games against Romania, losing 1-0 in a Euro 2008 qualifier, but they made up for it by winning 2-0 in the finals of that same year, which is still their only big tournament match.

Our Predictions

Netherlands to win and over 2.5 goals @2.35 on Sky247.ng

The Netherlands will have to make up for a mainly unfulfilled Euros performance ahead of this game. Cody Gakpo and Xavi Simons will need to use their abilities more this week, as they have already shown glimpses of them. Romania needs to play out of their skin in this game since they can pull off an upset on their day. On paper, though, the Netherlands are superior and ought to prevail.

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