Cosmin Contra, impressed by a “Tricolor”: “I haven’t had a defender with these qualities for a long time!”

article written by Digi Sport
20.11.2023, 19:56

Already qualified for EURO 2024, Romania will play the last match of Group I in the company Switzerlandmatch that will decide the winner of the group.

Romania – Switzerland is played on Tuesday, from 21:45, and can be watched in LIVE TEXT format on digisport.ro, but also in the Digi Sport app (available on Google Play and App Store). From 01:15, the game will be broadcast for the first time on Digi Sport 1.

Cosmin Contra: “I haven’t had a defender like Rațiu for a long time!”

Two days after the “Tricolori” ensured their presence at the European Championship, Cosmin Contra confessed that he is impressed by the qualities of Andrei Rațiu and believes that the national team of Romania has not had a defender with such skills for a long time.

The former Romanian coach, currently at the Saudi group Damac, believes that the match with Real Madrid in which Rațiu had a very good performance gave the footballer a lot of confidence before the game with Israel.

“Rațiu has some extraordinary qualities, and we had him in our sights for the national team. Then he was at Villarreal B, then he made the step to the second division. He arrived at Rayo Vallecano, he played an extraordinary match against Real Madrid, in the duel with Vinicius.

The match against Real Madrid gave him a lot of confidence and this was also seen in the match against Israel. Sometimes it gets complicated, but its qualities are extraordinary. For a long time we haven’t had a defender with such qualities, who can do both phases.

We hope that Rațiu continues as well, grows up, plays for Rayo and always comes with this confidence that we saw in the match against Israel”, said Cosmin Contra in a telephone intervention on the Digi Sport Special show.