Iordanescu credits Belgium as ‘complete team’ after loss in Cologne

Belgium are a “complete team” according to Romania boss Edward Iordanescu.

The Red Devils finally got some points on the board in Group E at Euro 2024, beating their opponents 2-0 in Cologne on Saturday night.

It was a good response from Kevin De Bruyne and Co, who lost their opener against Slovakia.

Youri Tielemans got the side off to a brilliant start, scoring after just a minute.

It was an open game after that, but Belgium struck a killer blow in the second half through their captain.

He ran in behind from a goal-kick and slotted effortlessly past the goalkeeper to double Belgium’s advantage.

It was a hard-fought battle from Romania, but still not enough to win the game according to their head coach.

🤯📊 Group E final day will be INSANE…

Slovakia vs Romania
Ukraine vs Belgium

Bring it on. 🍿 #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/d5hG9GDXlt

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) June 22, 2024

Speaking at his post-match interview, he said: “They’re a team with lots of quality: they have speed, they have explosiveness, power.

“They are a complete team. They are candidates to win the title.

“We never gave up, we fought very hard. In the second half, we were better.

“With a bit of luck, we could have got a point. We had chances to equalise.

“In terms of challenges, this was the highest level.

“We had a great start to the tournament, now let’s see how we deal with difficulty. We need solidarity and unity.

“We will analyse it a lot with the team. We had a lot of duels in this game, in contrast to the first game.

📸#EURO2024 | #BELROU pic.twitter.com/ryv069Huuv

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) June 22, 2024

“We did have our chances. We will always try and be better and we will try and improve for the third game. I have complete faith in our team.”

Romania go into their final game against Slovakia knowing a win will put them through to the knockout stages.

All three teams in Group E sit on three points, but Iordanescu is confident his side have what it takes to get the job done.

He added: “We will do what we can to react [against Slovakia].

“Every player that came off the bench today was an attacking player but it was not enough.

“We had to try and not concede too many but this team was undefeated for quite a while.

“We had to fight for every ball. We lost a few duels but we have the quality to get out of this.”