U21s up and running

Vasilache the hero
The 20-year-old Ciprian Vasilache was the hero for the Romanians, scoring the only goal in their 1-0 home victory against Finland in Bucharest. The FC Gloria 1922 Bistrita defender struck in the 58th minute after a strong first half from the Finns had failed to yield many goalscoring opportunities.

Deflected winner
But the Romanians pushed forward after the break and were rewarded when Vasilache's 25-metre drive was deflected into the net by team-mate Andrei Cristea to delight the 1,000 spectators at the Cotroceni stadium and give Romania a great opening to their Group 1 campaign.

Coach upbeat
Romania coach Nicolae Manea was understandably upbeat afterwards. "I want to congratulate my players and thank them because they showed a really positive attitude and mentality and did what they had to do," he said.

Kitenge dismissed
Meanwhile, Slovakia had an equally satisfactory evening as they beat Luxembourg by the same scoreline in Group 3's opening contest. The home fans in Senec had to wait for the breakthrough, however, with defender Roman Konecný of FC Spartak Trnava finally easing their nerves by heading the winner in the 74th minute. The 21-year-old's goal came four minutes after Luxembourg had been reduced to ten men following a second yellow card for visiting forward Joël Kitenge.

Mixed reaction
Slovakia coach Jozef Bubenko said: "There are no easy games in Europe. I am satisfied with our play, but not by our finishing." His counterpart from Luxembourg, Ronny Bonvini, said: "We fielded five players who were in our U17 team last season. We held out for a long time, but lost our concentration after the red card."