played in the Letzigrund Stadion in Zürich. They held a poor French side to a goalless draw in the tea-time kick-off, before the Netherlands sensationally beat Italy 3–0 in Bern. Four days later they played the World Champions knowing a win would knock the Italians out. Coach Victor Piţurcă changed the formation from 4 to 3–3 to 4-1-3-2, with Adrian Mutu pushed inside from the left wing to partner Daniel Niculae up-front, with the other winger Bănel Nicoliţă kept on the bench. They took the lead in the second half when pounced on a slack backpass by the Italian right-back Gianluca Zambrotta but Christian Panucci equalized barely a minute later with a tap-in from a corner kick. Italy needed to hold on to the point to have any chance of qualifying for the quarter finals and feared the worst when Romania were awarded a penalty inside the last ten minutes. However, Mutu's penalty was saved by Gianluigi Buffon, rescuing Italy. The 1–1 draw meant that Romania could still progress if they beat the Dutch in their final group match in Bern, but the Netherlands were regarded as the outstanding team in the tournament, having followed their comprehensive win against Italy with an equally emphatic 4–1 win over France. A draw would also take Romania through were the other match between Italy and France to be drawn. With Italy taking a first-half lead against a France side reduced to ten men, it became apparent that Romania needed to beat the Netherlands to qualify. However, they played poorly and the Netherlands won 2–0 with second half goals from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie. Although eliminated, Romania were viewed to have fare well given their extraordinarily difficult group, finishing above France in the final table with two points. Piţurcă, coach since the start of the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, retained his position. 2010 World Cup qualifying Romania were drawn into Group 7 in the European qualifying tournament along with France, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria and the Faroe Islands. The campaign started in September 2008: they began disastrously, losing 3–0 at home to unfancied Lithuania in Cluj-Napoca before scraping an unconvincing 1–0 win in the Faroe Islands, midfielder Răzvan Cociş scoring the goal. Their third match would be at home to France, who had also begun with a bad loss, 3–1 to Austria in Vienna. Romania raced into a 2–0 lead in