Turks March Towards Play-Off Finals: Türkiye vs Romania World Cup Play-Off Semi-Finals Recap
- therookiereporters
- Apr 2
- 6 min read
Two nations that vow to end their World Cup drought face each other at the semi-finals of the European Qualifiers Play-Off round. Türkiye hosts Romania at Besiktas Park.
Turks and Romanians are no strangers to one another in football. In fact, Romania is Türkiye’s first and also most common opponent with 26 matches in 103 years. Statistics favour the “Tricolours” with 14 victories, 7 games ended in draws and Crescent Stars could only win 5 of those matches. In their history, Türkiye has never conceded more goals from any other nation. Romania’s manager, Mircea Lucescu, was once Turkish National Team’s manager for 2 years (2017-2019) and also had Turkish club runs in early 2000s. Romanian football legends such as Gheorghe Hagi and Gheorghe Popescu became Galatasaray club legends as well by taking part in the 1999/2000 season’s UEFA Cup winning squad.
With so much history and familiarity between two countries, there’s also a common hunger to end their World Cup absence. Romania’s last World Cup entry was in 1998 France, in which they made it into the Round of 16. However, their most successful run came in the 1994 World Cup in the USA, reaching the quarter-finals. Meanwhile, Türkiye’s absence from the world stage is only 4-years shorter, as they last appeared in the 2002 World Cup in Japan/South Korea. Turks had a historic run in that tournament, claiming the bronze medal, it’s still the biggest football success in the nation's history. In order to reach this stage, Türkiye finished their Qualifiers Group E in 2nd place behind Spain, overcoming Georgia and Bulgaria in the process. Despite ending up in 3rd in the Group H behind Austria and Bosnia/Herzegovina, Romania earned their Play-Off spot by becoming one of the four best group winners in the Nations League Division C.
Coming into the Play-Off semi-finals, Türkiye is missing the ex-Juventus centre-back Merih Demiral and Roma right-back Zeki Çelik are out of the match squad due to their injuries and the backup left-winger Aral Şimşir is sent back to FC Midtjylland for further treatment. Muhammed Şengezer, Ahmetcan Kaplan, Semih Kılıçsoy and Mustafa Eskihellaç are the other players that Vincenzo Montella didn’t include in his 23-men squad. On the Romanian side, there aren’t any crucial injuries, but there are little doubts about the goalkeeper Ionut Radu. Cabuz, Ciubotaru, Rus and Petrila aren't included in Lucescu’s final squad. So without further ado, it’s time to see the first elevens of both teams.
Türkiye XI: Cakir - Müldür - Akaydin - Bardakçı - Kadioglu - Yüksek - Çalhanoğlu - B.A. Yılmaz - Güler - Yıldız - Aktürkoğlu
Romania XI: Radu - Rațiu - Drăgușin - Burcă - Bancu - Marin - Hagi - Dragomir - Man - Mihăilă - Bîrligea
In the Crescent Stars, all eyes will be on the wonderkids Arda Güler and Kenan Yıldız to create chances and conclude attacks. Meanwhile Dennis Man and Valentin Mihăilă will be the biggest threats of Romania to spoil the Turkish party in Istanbul. Of course, there will also be great responsibility on defensive shoulders, especially for Romania. The Bancu-Yılmaz matchup on the right-wing may be the breaking point of the game.
First Half
With the first whistle, Türkiye gains the ball possession and dictates the tempo as expected. However, Romania doesn’t let them find any openings so easily, as they build a solid defence structure that prevents goal threats successfully. Türkiye’s first shots come from long range shots by Calhanoglu and Bardakci, but they can’t threaten the Romanian goal much. The Tricolours also found chances with Ianis Hagi afterwards, getting the ball inside Türkiye’s box and hitting the crossbar. In the 32nd minute, Yıldız took the ball away from Rațiu and sent it from left to Güler, who waited right outside the box.
But the Real Madrid midfielder shoots the ball over the crossbar, as Türkiye’s most realistic threat in the first half gets wasted. In the remaining minutes of the half, they also tried to break down Romania’s crowded and solid defence with quick passing, but they failed to make the final passes. So, the first half ends goalless, as the Crescent Stars control the game.
Despite having the ball possession, Türkiye struggled to be creative at the front. This was partly because of the very defensive play from the Tricolours, but they were also making pretty slow progress towards the final third, which gave Romanians enough time to multiply in defence. Man and Mihăilă were mostly busy helping the defence, but when they found their chances, combined with Hagi, they showed the chaos they can cause at the opponents’ boxes. Romania managed to defuse the key players of Türkiye so far and the plan seems to keep doing that and exhaust them to the point where Turks can make mistakes easier.
Second Half
The second half begins similarly to the first one, Türkiye in control and Romania in defence. But this time, Türkiye manages to break the dreadlock in the 53rd minute. Güler sees Ferdi Kadioglu sprinting towards the Romanian box and passes from long range with pinpoint accuracy. Brighton left-back gets a decent first touch and finishes tidy, as the ball rolls between Radu’s legs and finds the net. With this shock to their gameplan, Lucescu’s men start taking more risks and search for a chance to quickly equalise with Hagi, but his shot doesn’t find the target.
The Crescent Stars also start to find more opportunities with Güler and Yıldız, but they can’t get past the crossbar and the goalkeeper. The Tricolours find a rare, but short period to put pressure on Türkiye with consecutive corners. In the 77th minute, in one of those set piece opportunities, Turkish players struggled to clear the ball and newly-subbed Stanciu found himself a space to shoot. However, the winger’s shot hits the crossbar and rolls parallel to the goalline, only to end up in front of another Romanian player, who is already offside. In the remaining minutes, both teams fail to produce any threats to one another and the game ends in 1-0 victory for Türkiye.
With this result, Türkiye gets one step closer to return to the world stage, they will now have to go through Kosovo to earn the designated UEFA spot waiting in Group D. Ferdi Kadioglu roamed tirelessly between defence and offense, constantly looking for chances to create. In the end, with the perfect assist from Arda Güler, he found himself against the goalkeeper and delivered. He’s most likely the Man of the Match for most people.
Güler once again left everyone speechless with his amazing passing and vision, showcasing his exciting talent for club and country. It’s impossible to say he’s just a 21-year-old. And an unsung hero for the Turks was Hakan Calhanoglu. Returning from one and half months of injury, the experienced midfielder made the right interceptions to keep Romania down in the moments they were trying to increase their momentum.
As for Romania, they defended well against the Turks in the first half. 33-year-old Bancu was particularly impressive with the way he fended off Baris Alper Yılmaz, who was giving hard times to Champions League full-backs recently. But in terms of offense, except their 2 shots on target, the Tricolours were nowhere to be seen. It seems like their plan was to prevent Montella’s men from scoring and take the game to overtime or even to penalties. However, it’s not an easy job to withstand a team with various game changers. Unless there’s a good Plan B in disposal, it can end in tears after the first big mistake, which is exactly what happened to the Romanians. This loss extends Romania’s World Cup wait for another 4 years, as they’ll focus on qualifying for the next European Championship from now on.
Long story short, Türkiye cleared Romania off their path to the World Cup and now one step away from booking their place. The fate of the UEFA Pathway C will be decided on 31st of March, when Kosovo and Türkiye face each other in the Play-Off finals.
Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026
