Romania is World Minifootball Champion, After a Dramatic Final

The national team of Romania won the final of the Minisoccer World Championship in Ras al Khaimah (United Arab Emirates) on penalty kicks, 14-13 against Kazakhstan.

The tricolors won the only major trophy that was missing from the Kazakh national team’s showcase on Saturday. They opened the scoring at the end of the first half, in their first dangerous phase, through Ungur’s own goal.

After a very good first half, Romania lost the initiative in the second half, and Tarzhanov made it 2-0 in the 37th minute. The ending was incendiary. Balog converted a penalty kick awarded by VAR in the 49th minute, and in the extra minutes the tricolors scored through the same player, which sent the match into extra time.

Although Romania was more dangerous in the two halves of five minutes each, the winner was decided after the execution of kicks from 7 meters. The lottery was a dramatic one, after the first three series the two teams went head-to-head, and in three rows when the Kazakhs missed, so did the Romanians.

In the end, the score was 14-13 for the national team prepared by Virgil Bejenaru, who had the former international Alexandru Bourceanu on the field. Romania’s national mini-football team is the most successful national team in the history of European mini-football, with 6 continental titles (2010-2015) and 2 silver medals. Romania won two bronze medals at the World Championship (USA 2015 and Australia 2019).

The Results of Romania at the 2023 World Championship Minifootball
Groups: 10-1 vs Sudan, 3-2 vs Spain, 0-0 vs USA

Best: 7-0 vs Thailand

Quarter-finals: 2-0 vs United Arab Emirates

Semi-finals: 3-0 vs Hungary.