Romania end impressive Greece run

Romania held their nerve to record an impressive 3-1 victory against UEFA EURO 2012 qualifiers Greece in Austria.

Victor Pițurcă's side opened the scoring through Gabriel Torje on 17 minutes, before seeing their lead cancelled out by a 34th-minute Giorgos Karagounis strike. However, second-half goals from Cristian Tănase (61) and Alexandru Chipciu (80) helped Romania seize the initiative again and secure a deserved victory in Altach.

Fernando Santos, who made nine changes from the team which faced Russia on Friday, saw his unbeaten run in charge of Greece come to an end in an entertaining encounter. Romania enjoyed the lion's share of possession and territory in the early stages and took the lead through Torje, who scored with a powerful right-footed shot from the edge of the area, giving Stefanos Kapino no chance.

Greece equalised 17 minutes later through a direct free-kick from their captain Karagounis, and briefly threatened to go on and win the contest. However, they seemed to lack the cutting edge in the final third and Romania retook the lead shortly after the break when Tănase struck with a spectacular left-footed volley following good work from Daniel Niculae.

Romania put the game beyond the reach of their opponents with ten minutes remaining; when a mistake in the Greek defence gifted the ball to substitute Chipciu, the FC Braşov man calmly finished with a right-footed shot to give his side a deserved 3-1 victory and end a run of four games without a win.

Romania: Bălgrădean, Goian, Găman (Chiricheș 63), Papp, Radu, Torje, Pintilii (Lazăr 46), Neagu (Grigore 86), Tănase (Chipciu 67), Mazilu (Niculae 46), Stancu (Cociș 78).

Greece: Kapino, Maniatis, Papastathopoulos (Papadopoulos 46), Malezas, Giannoulis, Karagounis, Makos (Fotakis 46), Tziolis (Salpingidis 76), Kone (Theodoridis 65), Charisteas (Samaras 46), Liberopoulos (Mitroglou 46).