The World Cup qualifying continues on Tuesday and one of the best matchups could be Romania and Greece and the match comes after Greece pulled off a nice win 3-1 in the first leg and after adding three goals, that might be enough to get to Brazil and the match will be live at 9:00 PM local time and on ESPN3 streaming at 2:00 PM ET and the game will be at the National Arena in Bucharest.
Greece will be down Kostas Katsouranis after a yellow card and the team now needs to find a way to score to get them in position to get to Brazil and into the World Cup draw. Vlad Chiriches may return after missing the last match and the Greek team was able to take care of business at home and now they have the chance to try and get things done on the road to get to Rio. The team only scored 12 goals over 10 games in the group stage and that is why everyone was surprised at their performance in the first leg and now the second leg gives them a chance to get things done again. There are a number of matches on the day, including Croatia and Iceland as well as Sweden and Portugal in a very anticipated match and after that France and Ukraine will also play.
Check here for the streaming coverage from ESPN.
Romania coach Victor Piturca believes his side, determined to end a 16-year absence from the World Cup finals, must produce an error-free performance to overturn a two-goal deficit in their World Cup playoff against Greece on Tuesday.
"We were not at the desired level both physically and mentally and we have to do much better.
"We're well-prepared and we have nothing to lose, given the circumstances, and I hope we can succeed."
Piturca said first-choice keeper Ciprian Tatarusanu, who missed the first leg due to back injury, was fit to play but he has yet to decide if he will start the game at the National Arena.
The 57-year-old, however, will have captain Vlad Chiriches, who missed the match in Athens after suffering a broken nose, back in his starting lineup.
"I feel OK, I trained very well and I'm not afraid," said Chiriches who will play wearing a face mask.
"It was disappointing to lose the match in Piraeus (Athens) but now we have to overcome the emotions as I know we can qualify.
"It'll be very difficult if we concede a goal, so we must be careful. They were very strong at set pieces and I hope we'll fix our problems."
Greece coach Fernando Santos again sounded a note of caution ahead of the game in Bucharest.
"It will be a different match," the 59-year-old Portuguese said. "We have an advantage but we know the Romanians have the ability to recover two goals.
"We must protect our advantage but that doesn't mean we will defend during the whole game. We want to play a better match than in Piraeus and to qualify.
"Romania will play offensively but I don't want to allow them to control the match. We want to control it and if we score a goal, this will be a huge relief for us."
The Romanian players practiced penalties during training on Monday but Santos said he does not expect the playoff to be decided by a shootout.
The Greeks won the first leg 3-1 and Piturca said his players committed too many defensive blunders, describing their Balkan opponents' third goal as "something that happens in a school playground".
"At this level, it's very difficult to recover if you make such gifts," Piturca told a news conference on Monday.
(Reuters)
