Injured Marica told to rest
11 Jun 2008 - 09:27:23
Romania striker Ciprian Marica is a doubt for Friday's Group C game against Italy after being taken to hospital as a precaution following a clash of heads in training.
The Stuttgart forward was told to rest for two days after the incident involving Marius Niculae, which left him with a head wound.
Meanwhile, midfielder Razvan Cocis is confident Romania can build on the goalless draw with France and clinch a place in the quarter-finals.
He said: "I think we showed against France that Romania can compete with the best in the world.
"We maybe concentrated too much on not conceding a goal against France, without thinking too much about the attack.
"That's understandable because it was so important for us not to lose the first game. However, we will probably have to win one of our last two games to progress, so we will think more about going forward.
"Italy will be hurt after losing so heavily (to the Netherlands). They are world champions so we will have to be careful. Yes, we beat the Dutch in qualifying but I don't think that counts for anything now.
"This is a different situation but, if it comes down to the match against the Dutch, we know we have played well against them before and hopefully we can get the same result again.
"For now, we are concentrating only on Italy and the first game has given us a lot of confidence."
