Did you know Romania only conceded two goals in qualifying en route to Euro 2016?
That statistic would suggest that they are well capable of providing resistance to a potent French attack when the tournament's opening game kicks off tonight at the Stade de France.
However, Romanian football writer Emanuel Rosu suggests that might be a red herring.
The World Soccer and The Guardian contributor joined Newstalk's Team 33 on the line from Paris last night to tell us about how dangerous his home nation could be to the hosts in the mould of underdogs.
"You mentioned earlier that Romania is probably going to have a good defence. This is tricky because in the qualifiers we did only concede only two goals but our opponents weren't France, weren't Switzerland or even Albania. I think all our best opponents in the qualifiers for Euro 2016 were at Albania's level," said Rosu of a group featuring Northern Ireland, a poor Greece side, Hungary and Finland.
Romania's unbreakable defense is a myth. Our back 4 come from Qatar, Romania, Italy and Spain. The last two barely play at club level.
— Emanuel RoÅŸu (@Emishor) June 9, 2016
"The teams we met were at our level or a little below, so we weren't really tested in terms of the defensive quality. That's what I fear in France. I fear that our defence will fall to pieces because the pressure will be very big and I think this is the biggest threat we have at the moment. This apparently was our biggest strength but it can become our biggest weakness and main liability unfortunately."
Rosu also spoke about the importance of ex-Tottenham defender Vlad Chiriches as captain and leader in comparison to his less successful club career, as well as the attacking players to look out for in the understanding that creativity is lacking and counter-attack is the main weapon.
You can listen to the full chat on the podcast player or stream for free on iTunes:
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