Group 6: Austria top dogs

Austria and Romania have qualified for the second qualifying round of the 2002/03 UEFA European Under-17 Championship from first qualifying round Group 6.

Austria and Romania dominate
The qualifying tournament took place in Romania, in the newly-created National Training Centre at Mogosoaia (about 20km from Bucharest). Austria and Romania both secured qualification by winning first two games to set up a splendid final match between the two sides to determine who finished top of the group.

Four at the double
The tournament began with Romania beating the Faroe Islands 8-0 thanks to double strikes from four players - Bogdan Bucurica, Claudiu Keseru, Razvan Avram and Stefanut Tudorache. Austria's campaign began with a 2-0 win against F.Y.R. Macedonia, the goals coming from Martin Frantsich and Patrick Mayer.

Keseru hat-trick
The next series of games saw Romania beat the Macedonians 4-0, with Romania captain Keseru hitting a deserved hat-trick in the first 37 minutes and Avram also getting on the scoresheet. Goran Doksimovski was sent off for Macedonia.

Final matches
Meanwhile, Austria beat the Faroe Islands 6-0, with two goals from Sascha Pichler and one apiece from Daniel Gattering, Christian Fuchs, Patrick Mayer and Christoph Saurer. That result set up the final-day match between the Austrians and the Romanians to decide the top two places.

Six goals for Kesuru
Despite Keseru registering his sixth goal of the mini-tournament for Romania in the 31st minute Austria ran out narrow 2-1 winners thanks to a 16th-minute strike from Andreas Dober and a winner from Mayer 17 minutes before full time. Macedonia beat the Faroe Islands 2-0 to finish third.

Group permutations
In the second qualifying round Austria will join Finland and Yugoslavia in Group 3, alongside the eventual runners-up from Group 9. Meanwhile Romania will face Poland, Israel and the eventual Group 10 winners in Group 4.