Romania boss Mirel Radoi has spoken about the “great threats” England possess in attack ahead of Sunday’s meeting between the sides at the Riverside Stadium, stressing: “I’m not afraid, but we will be very cautious.”
Radoi’s men provide the final warm-up opposition for England in the build-up to their Euro 2020 campaign.
Asked at his pre-match press conference on Saturday which players he felt were the biggest threats on either side, Radoi said: “I cannot outline some Romanian players because that will break the surprise for tomorrow’s game.
“But if we are speaking about the English players, I can say their names for one minute without taking a pause and they are all great threats for Romania.
“If we are speaking only about the offensive side of the squad, I can name for example (Harry) Kane, (Raheem) Sterling and (Marcus) Rashford, three players that can be a real threat for any opponent in the world right now.
“I’m not afraid, but we will be very cautious. We have studied them, we know that these three players, if they have free spaces, in six or seven seconds can be right in front of our goal, so we will take care in order not to give them free spaces.”
While Tottenham’s Kane and Manchester United’s Rashford could feature on Sunday, Sterling is set to sit things out, with Southgate having said the Manchester City and Chelsea players in his squad will not be involved after playing in the Champions League final last weekend.
Romania, ranked 43rd in the world, failed to qualify for the Euros, losing to Iceland in the play-offs.
Radoi added: “We are trying to find tough opponents for Romania because we are during a change of generation related to our players. So we try to get them used to solving tough problems.
“It will be for sure a tough and aggressive team of England that we will meet tomorrow. It will be a challenge not to be only well-organised in defence, because if we concentrate only on this it will be difficult to make the positive transition and go to the attacking side.
“We will try, even if we will be forced to suffer a bit, to alternate the pressing with the defensive organisation of the game.”
England open their Euros campaign by facing 14th-ranked Croatia at Wembley seven days after facing Romania.
And Radoi said: “Probably they (England) thought we are seeming like Croatia. We are using more or less the same system.
“There is of course a difference of value between us and Croatia, but when we have such opponents we can raise to the highest level.”
