Tonight in Bucharest, the football team of Bosnia and Herzegovina will meet the selection of Romania in the second round of the UEFA Nations League.
The two national teams met in the last qualifiers for the World Cup, when the team selected by BiH coach Sergej Barbarez celebrated in both matches. Barbarez expects a similar match tonight.
“We expect a similar match to our last two matches against Romania. It was played unapologetically and masculinely, with great desire and mentality. In Zenica we lost and came back, here we won 1:0. The matches could have gone either way, but in the end we won twice,”!Barbarez said at the press conference before the match.
There has been a change on the bench of the Romanian selection compared to the previous qualifications, so now this team will be led by the greatest legend of Romanian football, Gheorghe Hagi.
Barbarez points out that he knows the Romanian team and players, but that he is most interested in their mentality.
“We have to deal with that properly. They lost the first game and are now under pressure as hosts. We will try to use it. The most important thing is that we play bravely,” added the BiH coach.
The forward of the BiH team, Haris Tabaković, expects a difficult match, but believes in victory.
“Against Poland, our plan was to play intensively, to go for high pressing, that’s my game. I expect the same on Monday. We will have to press, but there will also be parts where we will have to be careful in defense,” said Tabaković.
Barbarez has named 23 players for tonight’s match, and in relation to the match against Poland, he decided to send Nailo Omerović to the stands, while Luka Đurić will wait for the opportunity to make his debut.
The coach of Romania decided to make changes in the team after the 2:1 defeat by Sweden in Stockholm and did not include Radu Dragusin, Andrei Ratiu, Nicusor Bancu, Razvan Marin, Marius Marin, Raul Oprut, Dennis Man, Bogdan Racovitan, nor his son Ianis Hagi for tonight’s duel.
He pointed out that Bosnia and Herzegovina has made enormous progress in previous years.
“It is clear that this is how younger players develop. She deservedly went to the World Championship, she gained a lot of self-confidence, she is mentally stronger. He has a very good coach. The players are full of confidence, which is expected when you have results like this,” said Hagi.
The match between Romania and BiH will be played tonight in front of the empty stands of the National Arena in Bucharest at 20:45.
The Portuguese Luis Godinho referees the match, Fena writes.
