Romania v France

UEFA EURO 2008 GROUP C
Date: Mon 9 June Kick-off: 1700 BST Venue: Letzigrund Stadion, Zurich

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Romania striker Adrian Mutu is fit and confident his side can create an upset against an injury-ravaged France.

France captain Patrick Vieira remains a major doubt and could even been ruled out of the tournament after he picked up a thigh injury in training.

Coach Raymond Domenech will wait until the final moment before deciding whether to replace Vieira with on-standby midfielder Matthieu Flamini.

Thierry Henry (sciatic nerve) and Franck Ribery (ankle) are also doubts.

Mutu said: "We will do our best and a positive result against France would give us real impetus for the games against Italy and Holland.

"As our captain Cristian Chivu said, 'It's time for us to show what we can do'." 606: DEBATE
Who will escape the Group of Death?

France's all-time leading scorer Henry limped out of training on Thursday to undergo treatment on a sciatic nerve problem, while influential attacker Ribery was still troubled by an ankle injury.

Ribery picked up the knock in France's 1-0 victory in the warm-up game against Colombia on Thursday.

France are hoping both will play against Romania on Monday, but if Henry is not ready then Nicolas Anelka will likely play alongside Karim Benzema up front.

Vieira limped out of an earlier training session with a slight thigh tear but he did return to training.

He showed some encouraging signs in training, moving freely, twisting and turning, and joining in a short practice match.


BIG MATCH STATS
Head-to-heads

Romania and France have met each other on 10 occasions, Romania winning three, France winning six times and one match finishing in a draw.

In three competitive matches, Romania have never managed to beat France.

The two teams have played each other once at the European Championship. On 10 June 1996, France beat Romania 1-0 through a Christophe Dugarry goal.

Their latest encounter was on 13 February 2002 in a friendly match, France beating Romania 2-1 with goals from Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit (France) and Ionel Ganea (Romania).

Head to head records and significant meetings

Team facts - Romania

Fourth appearance at the European Championship and yet to win their opening match.

Their best result is reaching the quarter-finals at Euro 2000, in which they were eliminated by Italy.

Won only one of their 10 European Championship matches. They beat England 3-2 at Euro 2000, ending a run of eight winless matches in these tournaments.

Coach Victor Piturca also led Romania to Euro 2000, but he left after the qualifying campaign after a conflict with Gheorghe Popescu and Gheorghe Hagi.

Team facts - France

The last host nation to win the European Championship (1984).

Have won the European Championship twice (1984, 2000). Germany are the only country to have won it more often (three).

Have the best "average record "at the European Championship. "Les Bleus" have gathered a "composite points total" of 48 points in 25 matches, an average of 1.92 points per match.

Points per match of European Championship participants

France featured in the very first match at the European Championship, which was then called the European Cup of Nations. On 6 July 1960, France lost 5-4 against Yugoslavia. The nine goals in that match still mark the highest scoring encounter in the history of the European Championship.

Their 1984 campaign marks the only time since the introduction of the group stage (1980) that a nation has turned in a perfect record in a single edition (five wins out of five in this case).

Failed to survive the group stages at the European Championship just once. In 1992, France finished third in Group One, behind Sweden and Denmark.

Player facts - Romania

Cristian Chivu is the only player in the current Romanian squad to have scored at a European Championship. He netted the opening goal in the 3-2 win against England.

Gabriel Tamas and Daniel Niculae play their club football in France, both at AJ Auxerre.

Seven of the Romanian players were born in Bucharest, making the Romanian capital the city where most Euro 2008 squad members were born. Moscow is second on this list with six.

Player facts - France

Lilian Thuram could break the all-time appearance record at the European Championship, as his current tally stands at 14.

Thuram is now joint record holder together with Zinedine Zidane, Karel Poborsky and Luis Figo