and as a romanian i can say that ,after Hagi,my favourites are ronaldo and pele.but ronaldo was astonishing..

+Peristilo peris what is sad is that they lost to a relative weak team like Sweden while having taken out tougher opponents

Oi ! Sou Romeno e falo um pouco de portugês. Falo melhor por voz, mas vou tentar escrever. Em 1994 tive 14 anos e amei muito, muito a equipe do Brasil. Fiquei muito feliz quando ganhou. Claro que se a Romenia tivesse jogado com o Brasil, eu tiria apoiado meu pais. Uns 4 anos atràs comecei a estudar o português do Brasil, mais ou menos depois da copa mundial de 2014. Amo o seu país, o pessoal daí, a cultura brasileira, a sua língua incrível (que tem suas particularidades bem definidas em comparação ao português de Portugal). Espero que Brasil vai ganhar na Rússia. Um abraço !

Mok Leor, Your Portuguese is really good! I was also 14 in 1994 and watched Brazil win the W.C. for the 1st time. Romario, My favourite Brazilian player ever, carried that team on his back offensively in many games. That Brazilian team was also great defensively with many good defenders and only suffered 3 goals in the entire tournament. Those were great times and i miss that. Teams had great talent, different than today. I remember that amazing Romanian team and Hagi was unbelievable. There was only one bad thing about him, which was he didn't play for Brazil :) Yep, the Brazil will face Mexico in a world cup of upsets and hopefully can pull that through, in a world cup of many upsets so far...

Yep

Ibrahimovic?

Of course Hagi was amazing player.. incredibly skilled

Hagi one of the best

Il maradona dei carpazzi

Remember Enzo scifo? Belgium player who could also hit the ball .

Not 11 anymore, happy Time Travel

@安達志宏 Too bad the Agony of Doha prevented Japan from going to that World Cup. I hope to see Japan have more success in the future! Cheers from Brazil.

Romania team will play in Tokyo at the Olympic Games this year 🥰

as cryuff said hagi was the best player in the world in 94'

no that was Thomas Ravelli, the reason the romanians lost to begin with. Godlike goalkeeper and criminally underrated

​@@resorbandhell you mean romania lost on a penalty lottery. Bulgaria and Romania in 94 had national teams top 5 in world

@@theterrobear2716 and yet sweden came further than they did. Like Belgium nowadays

@@resorband that's football, that's sports. The better team doesn't always win. Thomas Ravelli remains in history as a nobody, Hagi and Stoichkov on the other side have been listed in Pele's 100 greatest ever players. These 2 teams played a very technical eye pleasing football, Sweden was playing like all the nordic countries at the time, a brutal physical game.

Because he wasnt a forward, he was the brain and he was in his habitual position, great Gica.

:)))))))) is the only player in football history with a high rate of long range goals

him and stevie g could have held the midfield on their own in any team. You could easily play 8-2-0 with Hagi and Stevie G as the 2 midfielders and be the favorites against anyone :)

he was the best player you can ever watch from outside box. He was like that 3 pointer in basketball, you dont want to leave alone on the 3 point line. You had to constantly defend him even outside box. This comment is coming from the person hated to watch him as a opponent of Galatasaray. I literally hated him for that but respected at the same time.

we ALL did! It's hard not to

Aye... Ireland... I cannae forget our Timofte s missed penalty against you...

Romania have a one legend player. Just one. Gheorghe Hagi.

unic legend

Me too

He was icon of world and turkish football

@@Sir.croccodile644 ianis isn't too bad either

I’m Mexican American and I remember Hagi n fell in love with Romania because of him. I was 7 in 94

+thgfhrthtgh ....why is that strange? Romania has had great players many times...

Because recently, the 2 countries suck, but they were good back in the days

Ah ok, like that. Good times, bad times...

at least for Bulgaria, the match between Sweden was not important, because either way, they win bronze medal

I dont think the referees would have let that happen,a final between Romani and Bulgaria,a lof othe times they bury smaller countries

Colombia is no where in Football so that shouldn't be surprising that Romania beat them but it is surprsing that Romania defeated Argentina

@Electro Power see what Pele said about plaing Romania or Sweden. He said, after Sweden won, : " We are champions now" . He didn't want any moment to play with Romania. There war big chances to lose against Romania.

@@Darkscenes-jp4ge Columbia was one of the biggest favorites to win the World Cup in 1994! So that is why Romania made a big surprise defeating them!

@@codrutcroitoru Argentina too.

@Electro Power you are just a statistician😉. here we are talking about football and real playmakers. HAGI was fabulous, for example. Brazil or the other teams did not have such a complex player, an artist, with an incredible vision of the game.

come back in like 25 years...lol !

@@befreetv354 I’m afraid you are a bit to optimistic..I think Duckadam is right...

We, being Romanians, also could not believe our eyes , but unfortunately for us, in the opposite way. We cried a lot, and even after those years,we are still thinking how would it be if Prunea, our goalkeeper, would have been more careful. For us , that was the biggest World Cup, as i think(maybe i am wrong) it was also for you. What can I say, as a child being i was totally angry and i hated Ravelli :)) After growing up I understood that I don t have to hate Ravelli, I have to appreciate the fact that he was a really talented goalkeeper, and in my opinion, that is where the difference has been made between us in that game. I hope for both of us sometimes we will meet again in a world cup quarter final, or even in a European Championship.But my country, Romania, is now very far from getting there.

codrutcroitoru : as a little comfort , many years later , your guy was invited to a talkshow here in Sweden , and got the opportunity to do the penalty shot all over again , on Ravelli. This time he absolutely nailed it. And no one was more happy than Ravelli. I think the clip of that is here on youtube. Stay safe.

Well Roger,I'm glad to know now that the pain I've felt was not for nothing.Thank you

Wow!

@@bamboochaatit7266 : No problem. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we met at that high level once again ? At least we can dream about it.

i remember how close Romania was to play against Brazil in semifinals in 1994 ... Hagi and Popescu vs Romario and Bebeto i could play even 1000 US dollars to attend this match LIVE in that year... football stars , what show they could gave to entire world ,a legendary match ! instead we had to see a boring Brazil-Sweden 1-0 in that semifinal...

Sweden better😂

@@shineonyoucrazydiamond824 where are u now??? Lol

pretty much the whole inter milan team

Not only that.Also Real Madrid of 98,Barcelona in the early 90s,Galatasaray 2000,Panathinaikos of the early 00s,Olympiakos of the late 90s,Fenerbahce 2000-2007,Dinamo Zagreb late 90s...Steaua 80s,CSKA Sofia 70s,Partizan 60s,Crvena Zvezda 70s and 90s...The current Juventus based in Pjanic and Pjaca..Barcelona and Real's Croatians...and so on.

stupid romania is not balkan

YOU are the stupid one. prntscr.com/d9f7m5 All countries seen here,are part of Balkan peninsula.Idiot.

Δημ. Yugoslavia had a great run in the 50s

Mda, numai ca schimbarea portarului a fost cea mai tampita idee pe care am vazut-o in istoria fotbalului.

Care noi bre? Ce numar aveai pe tricou? Lasa-le draq de seminte, ti s-a urcat la cap te crezi coechipier cu Hagi

@@criztu noi(echipa romaniei/a tarei noastre)

best midfielders top 100 word cup : Zidane, Maradona, Pele, Michael Laudrup, Zico, Platini, Matthaus, Xavi Hernandez, Charlton, Francescoli, Gullit, Socrates, Figo, Neeskens, Pirlo, Mauro Silva, Vieira, Falcao, HAGI, Dunga, Ballack, Beckham, Gascoigne, Keane, Michel, Davids, Tardelli, Scifo, Ribery, Luis Fernandez. Belive me he was the best !!!!!

***** yes,he was the best in the balkans.if u state diferently please give us an example of a better player than hagi from this region

Mircea Ciobotaru Stoichkov

You see something about Pele in my post ? youfuckingfuck !!

I see that your brain is short...show me where I put Pele one of the greatest midfieldersof all time ????

Aparat

cand ai suflet nu vrei sa tio iei in cap tio iei o data de 2 ori vezi ca iti pierzi concentrarea si nu tio mai iei incerci sa fi cu picioarele pe pamant de asta iti zic nu ar vrea tocmai de asta sa nu sio ia in cap dar omul care face asa ceva are o inima buna daca nu mare asta imi place la machidoni permit unui asa om sa traiasca chiar daca nul cunosc nu fac rahaturi

HAGI🤴 real playmakers. HAGI was fabulous, for example. Brazil or the other teams did not have such a complex player, an artist, with an incredible vision of the game.

How were Sweden lucky?

@@keving8631 Their equalizing goal in the final few minutes was a mistake from the Romanian goalie. Also that game went to a penalty shootout which can go either way. Sweden were lucky that day.

@@SleepingCube you dont understand what luck means, yeah the last goal was a misstake but that is on the keeper and not luck. If romania had a better keeper this would not have happened. And penalties are the same for both teams so you are wrong

he played in world cup 1998 , Romania-Colombia 1-0 (they met again ,after world cup 1994) goal Adrian Ilie (min.45)

Kızıl Deli Abartma

So beautiful said ! 👏👏👏

Você é muito exagerado

What are you saying?

@Juve Bulgaria were the real winners of this tournament. They were robbed by FRENCH referee (Bulgaria won against FRANCE 1993 and because of that they didn`t qualify). They were unstoppable and I think that the real final was BULGARIA VS ROMANIA. Stoichkov would have decided the match by penalty :)

​@@kubratmitev4827Ah you tell me brother. I saw the offside of Kenderson goal in the minute 115' the comentary saying it too and now its history, never can be fixed again....😢

Din pacate...

I remember a lot of these players played the Intercontinental Cup for Steaua Bucaresti against River Plate from Argentina, and even thought they lost the game 0-1, their goalie was a BEAST; almost invincible, I wonder why he didn't played the World Cup. (P.S. That same goalie stopped all 4 of the penalty shots against Barcelona in the Champions League Final)

Jorge Espinoza he had the “International Messi syndrome”

One bad play does not make him a joker.

Michael Lubin in that contest it does. When you play in a world cup, you have to be well trained, to let in only the goals that you simply can't save. He let us down. We could've qulified but one mistake took us the chance to win the trophy. Also, the penalty was very easy for the goalkeeper. It was a bad shot.

you could at least spell his name right

hagi*

Yes, very special player and oh, that sweet, left foot*

I completely forgot about them. They were a hard nose team to play those days.

indeed. They played their heart out.

I also recall Sweden having a nice team as well. And that is also the time when Africa was starting to show real superstars rising in the football world. A great time to be a fan without a doubt.

Carlos Perez Brazil didn't scrap their way thru, yes they didn't play samba football but they were the best team in that tournament conceding only 3 goals.

it has been a long time. i think that you may be right when thinking of it. romario and bebeto ran circles around defenses, and the recalling the sweeden and holland games, brazil had them under control. the Italy final was a weird one, as it was clear that the football gods were not willing to allow for a brazil win during regular play, as it came down to a ridiculous missed penalty by Italy's best player (who had a great game against nigeria). Italy had nice teams during the early 90s, but were unable to put it all together from what i can recall. i also remember colombia as the pre-tournent favorites, but their style of play and lazy defending never gave them a chance. i still recall valderrama being stubburn in trying to play predictable through balls to valencia (as asprilla got suspended if i recall well) that got nowhere, and it was not until playing their last group game where they finally attacked via the flanks.

If by "football changed too much" you mean the Romanian federation is a corrupt organization, then yes, you are correct.

Don't lose hope. Romania has a pretty good chance of coming up maybe in this World Cup. I think we are actually qualifiers!

+Adrian A If you want to see a change then maybe be the change or encourage more friends or family to play soccer. For example in the US a lot of kids play soccer when they are younger but when they mature and gain more physical abilities they rather play sports such as american football or basketball robbing a large majority of the talent pool for soccer. I don't know much about Romanian football but it seems like they have a decent youth team but it doesn't translate to the senior level.

The problem is this match would have happened in semifinals.

because England and France missed 1994 world cup tournament , was Romania and Bulgaria time to shine in their places...

Bulgaria beat France in a qualifier in Paris a few months earlier, hence France missed WC94. Great goal in the last minute.

@@nccamsc yes, but they learned from that mistake ,and 4 years later ,in 1998, France became world champion for the first time ,while Romania and Bulgaria disappear from top of football

RAZZVY unexpected one of the best teams in the world at that time

@Birman Hitman not one of the worst. But not one of the best anymore

even in 1994 they had a strong squad but they were not the "best team" of 1994 Brazil had the strongest squad 2nd strongest Was Bulgaria and Italy's squad was 3rd strongest and I would put Romania's squad as 4th strongest in 1994

Nope Romania would not have defeated Brazil in the semis

Birman Hitman as long u in the top 32 I consider the country world class

"we were all glued to the tv" 😂😂😂 That's so true! 😂😂😂

2002 England wasn't decent?

@107973246654323579991 yeah, brazil vs England was actually that world cup's final because whomever won would have gone on to win the tournament. But the 1998 squad had a kind of verve that hasn't been replicated in the upcoming years.

Romania played like 1974 Netherlands "total football" style.

For all the talent they had in the squad, they seemed to wilt under no pressure against seemingly inferior teams. For example, they decided to "park the bus" against 10 man Sweden and lost 4-1 to Switzerland in the groups.

Mare figura mai esti.

=)))

Da ca avea englezi la galatasaray! ;)

gabi8o, acum cred ca sunt mult mai multi jucători de la noi care știu sa vorbească engleza mult mai bine ca Hagi, dar cu mingea "vorbesc" mult mai prost... Îl prefer pe Hagi! Primul ministru trebuie sa vorbească bine românește și engleză, iar jucători sa "vorbească" cu mingea ca să-i asculte sa între-n poarta adversa, nu cea proprie!

Nu vorbeste engleza, e tradus

Out of nowhere you re joking? With team that won UCL in 86 with 8 years before and they came from nowhere? You re lost