Surprising victory

Dragus: “By far the best day of my life”

Romania shocked Ukraine in their Group E opener. After the 3:0 victory, there was great joy on the Romanian side, but the Ukrainians were not looking for excuses and vowed to do better. 

Eduard Iordanescu (Romania coach): "I would like to thank all Romanians around the world. I know they were with us today. It was a fantastic performance by my team. If you had any doubts, you can believe me now that this is a great team. Congratulations to the boys. It's just incredible."

Denis Dragus (Romania goalscorer): "It was just fantastic in front of thousands of fans, a sensational experience in the heart of Munich. It gave us so much energy and we left everything on the pitch. We knew from the start that our opponents would be difficult to beat. We then played even stronger in the second half. We were ready from the start and we feel even better and more confident now that we've won. The character of this team is unique. It's by far the best day of my life to represent my country here at the European Championship. It's a feeling you can't describe."

Serhij Rebrow (Ukraine coach): "We made some individual mistakes and also some team mistakes. We basically lost in all areas. The Romanians defended very disciplined. But that's the European Championship. If you want to get points at the European Championship, you really have to show everything. And we didn't do that today."

Rebrow refused to let the difficult situation in his home country be used as an excuse: "We've been dealing with this mental pressure for more than two years, and yet we're here, we've understood that."