Chivu's Romania aim to spring surprise

Quality
FC Internazionale Milano defender Chivu is probably the best-known Romania player along with ACF Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu. But despite their lack of recognised star names compared to Group C rivals France, Italy and the Netherlands, Chivu believes Romania have enough quality in their ranks to make progress. "The other teams will certainly respect us but I don't think they feel we have a chance," Chivu told euro2008.com. "They know it won't be easy against us but it's to our advantage that they don't know too much about us. They only know two, three, maybe four of our players and I think this will be our surprise - the fact that they don't know us too well."

Selection question
Indeed, such is the quality of the next generation of Romania players that Chivu has found his own favoured centre-back role under threat from emerging talents such as Dorin Goian and Gabriel Tamaş. In recent games Chivu has been utilised by coach Victor Piţurcă as a holding or left-sided midfielder and while he is happy to play in any role for his country even he is not sure what his best position is any more. "I have started being confused as regards my role," said Chivu, whose side open their campaign against France in Zurich on Monday "Certainly, I would prefer to play centre-back, but recently for the national team I have been playing as a midfielder because a few years ago they needed a left-footed midfielder. I was the only one able to fill this role. I did it; I'm not sure how well I played, but apparently the coach liked it and I have played in midfield ever since."

Coach's approach
Chivu is quick to acknowledge the role that Piţurcă has played in reviving the fortunes of the Tricolorii. The former FC Steaua Bucureşti striker led Romania to UEFA EURO 2000™ qualification only to lose his job before the finals following a fall-out with leading players over bonus payments. Back at the helm since 2005, Piţurcă has gone out of his way to create a sense of family within the squad and according to Chivu that has been the key to  Romania reaching their first finals since the 2000 tournament in the Low Countries. "He is a very good manager and a good technician," Chivu said. "He is a special person, sometimes very strict. But he is someone who played football, who understands football, who understands the players and a person who knows how to mix business with pleasure. This is his success – the group's unity and the fact that we are good friends who respect each other. We qualified because we understood this and if we continue like this we will have good results in this tournament as well."