World Cup Second Round 3 July 1994

Rose Bowl, Pasadena
Romania 3 (Dumitrescu 11, 18, Hagi 56) Argentina 2 (Batistuta 16 pen, Balbo 75)

Romania: Prunea, Prodan, Belodedici, Lupescu, Petrescu, Selymes, Popescu, Munteanu, Mihali, Hagi (Gilca), Dumitrescu (Papura).

Argentina: Islas, Sensini (Medina Bello), Caceres, Ruggeri, Chamot, Basualdo, Simeone, Redondo, Ortega, Batistuta, Balbo.

Referee: Mr Pairetto (Italy)
Yellow Cards: Popescu, Munteanu, Dumitrescu (Romania), Ruggeri, Chamot, Caceres (Argentina)
Red Cards: None

Argentina had been rocked by the removal of Diego Maradona from their squad, and in losing to Bulgaria in the final group match, ensured they would face the classy Romanians in the second round.

Despite the losss of Maradona, Argentina were still many people's pick for the trophy. They had the strength and class of Ruggeri and Chamot in defence. The midfield was a mixture of the muscle of Simeone and the passing ability of Redondo, whilst up front there was no better striker in the competition than Gabriel Batistuta.

But on this day the quick-quick-slow of the Romanians would prove too much for the South Americans.

Romania had their own "Maradona of the Carpathians" in Gheorghe Hagi, and the returning Ilie Dumitrescu would play the game of his life.

After 11 minutes Dumitrescu curled in a 20-yard free-kick from the right that flew over Islas into the top corner, giving the Argentinians a taste of what was to come.

Five minutes later Batistuta levelled, smashing home from the spot, after he himself had been fouled.

But to complete an astonishing first 20 minutes, Dumitrescu gave Romania the advantage again. Hagi wandered over to the right of the pitch and played an exquisite one-two with Dumitrescu, who finished off in style at the near post.

As Argentina pushed forward, they became increasingly open to the free-flowing Romanian counter-attacks. Eleven minutes after half-time this would be illustrated with a glorious move from one end of the pitch to the other. Selymes dashed away down the left, and his ball inside to Dumitrescu was held up until Hagi arrived on the right to despatch the ball past Islas from 20 yards, for once using his right foot.

At this point Romania were beating Argentina at their own game, playing keep-ball, with glorious one-touch pass and move football.

Abel Balbo's 75th-minute close-range strike gave the Romanians a nervous last 15 minutes, but they held on to move on to the quarter-finals.

South American football had been shown that European coaches had caught on to the way to play in hot, humid conditions. Anghel Iordanescu rightly took the plaudits for an inspired display by a highly-gifted outfit.