IN the run up to this tournament all we seemed to hear about was 1966 and all that. And in Newcastle yesterday we were given a striking reminder of one of that year's final's most enduring images the ball that never crossed the line.
Or did it? Yesterday it certainly did. Half an hour had gone when Gheorghe Hag rolled a corner into the path of his fellow mid fielder, Dorine Munteanu. He thumped the ball first time from 25 yards and it appeared to be heading for the top corner when it clipped the underside of the bar, bounced down and out, to be headed to safety by Ivanov.
Referee Mikklesen awarded a corner, yet even to the naked eye it was clear the ball had crossed the line. Television replays merely confirmed this. On this occasion, however, the linesman was not Russian, but Danish, although the consequences of his non intervention were just as dramatic as `66. Bulgaria, 1-0 up at the time, held on for the next hour despite relentless yellow pressure, and Romania are out.
First team to leave the Championship. Anghel Iordanescu, the Romanian manager, did a good job of hiding his disappointment after and said. "I refuse to make any comment about that. It's up to you. Defeat is defeat." And so Romania depart, courtesy of a massive blunder by their goalkeeper Stelea against France, a costly slip by their central defender, Belodedici here, and a poor piece of refereeing.
Bulgaria, meanwhile, soldier on. Having defected from their base in Scarborough, they now occupy Romania's Durham hotel in preparation for next Tuesday's meeting with France. By then they will know exactly what they have to do and, should France beat Spain at Elland Road today, the Bulgarians and French could draw with each other and still go through.
The World Cup semi finalists in the USA would become quarter finalists in England and once more they would have one man in particular to thank Hristo Stoichkov.
The man who should have had two on Sunday, only to have one disallowed, finally became the tournament's joint top scorer after barely two minutes. Iordanescu had resisted the temptation to drop Stelea but had withdrawn the services of one of his centre halfs Mihali.
When, in the third minute, Stoichkov spun on to a Balakov through hall Stoichkov's marker. Belodedici slipped, enabling the Bulgarian striker to run into the space where Mihali's replacement, Piodan, should have been.
Like the menace he is, Stoichkov seized the moment, rushed into the space and toe poked a hard left foot shot into the corner. In the "Battle of the Balkans" the Lee van Cleef of Bulgaria had drawn first blood.
His opposition gunslinger. Hagi, was caught putting his belt on. These two shining footballers, great friends at Barcelona, had embraced each other warmly before the kick off, no doubt aware that whoever could exert the most influence was central to the final outcome. Yet it did not work out like that.
Hagi was fundamental to almost every Romanian attack and as they had the majority of possession his was, the more visible presence.
Bulgaria, however, made more use of their time with the ball, the sheer quality of Balakov, Lechkov and Stoichkov, giving them a distinctly sharper edge going forward.
Whereas Romania's moves tended to break down or stall once they reached Raducioiu, Bulgaria usually looked like creating something incisive.
For all Romania's pressure, Stelea was just as busy as Mihailov the man who had compared this match to an Oxford Reading derby beforehand. A quarter of an hour from the end, Stelea prevented Lechkov extending the Bulgarian lead with a braves top. Mihailov was only really disturbed by a fierce Hagi free kick and a curling cross from the Romanian.
Other than that, Romania's two, best chances both fell to Prodan the wrong man. He put an unchallenged header wide from four yards, with 20 minutes to go and in injury time screwed a left foot shot wide during a frantic scramble. Oh, that they had fallen to Hagi.
Now his 100th appearance for Romania, against Spain on Tuesday, is not even relevant to Romania's destiny.
