Romania - Colombia, the match of great memories

The national team will play a gala friendly against Colombia this evening in Madrid. The South American team is in sensational form, they haven't lost more than 20 matches, but the tricolors aren't bad either, they have 12 games without defeat. We have great memories of today's opponent, two big victories, 3-1 in the final tournament of the 1994 World Cup (USA) and 1-0 in the 1998 World Cup (France). Besides, Colombia did not beat Romania, there was another friendly duel in 2006, score 0-0.

Beyond memories and statistics, the national football team arrived in Madrid on Sunday evening, after a four-hour flight. The match with the Colombian team will be played at the Arena of the Atletico team, Civitas Metropolitano, from 21.30.

Edward Iordănescu, the Romanian national team selector, believes that the role of friendly matches is to allow some adjustments to be made: "The match with Northern Ireland was a very useful test against an opponent that I studied. Congratulations for coming and giving your best. A useful test from many points of view. It's been three and a half months since I saw the boys. There were good things I did. I could certainly do more, from my point of view, and I proved that recently. From an individual point of view, I also made a few attempts. If you don't do them in a friendly way, you don't have time to do them. Many solutions in certain positions are not, it is not easy to play with a right-footed player on the left side. I would have liked something else, but Manea, from certain points of view, made a game as I requested. There are players who have to establish themselves at the club. It is very difficult for me to give minutes. After all, there are 12 matches without defeat for the national team, but I would have liked a different consistency, a different speed in the movement of the ball and to generate more opportunities. We had possession, but a lot of passive, horizontal. I wanted to give Nita minutes because he is doing very good things in Turkey. There are great chances for the Moldovan, in Spain, on the field where he is active. To be under the noses of the Spaniards. It's important!". There are also some medical problems for today's match, the defender Mogoş has not made the trip, and the striker Florin Tănase has a slight injury.

According to the FRF, Romanian supporters were allocated the south lawn of the stadium, the price of tickets is between 35 - 39 euros, on the lawn and 65 euros in tribune 1. Approximately 25,000 Romanians are expected in the stands, but Colombia will also benefit from support equally consistent in the stadium which has a capacity of 70,000 seats.