Romania lost 3-4 (1-1) to Ukraine a friendly match on Sunday night, in preparation for the UEFA Euro 2016 soccer championship.
The tricolours lost on the Olympic Stadium of Torino after a decent first half, followed by three goals scored by Ukraine early in the second half.
"It was a very good first half, with us mostly controlling the game and scoring. Perhaps without that mistake at the end of the first half, when the score equalized... But all the other goals against us occurred on unacceptable individual faults. The second half actually got out of our control, at least the first part of it — one with many individual errors and three goals against us as presents to our opponents, which psychologically demolished us. In the end we managed two more goals, but it wasn't enough. We must learn from these mistakes. They are unacceptable for players of great experience. They entered the second half relaxed, thinking they own the game," Iordanescu told Digi Sport TV after the match.
All in all, the coach was more disappointed by his players' mistakes than by the defeat itself. "We were undefeated in 15 games, we had more than one year since our last defeat," he reminded.
Iordanescu will announce is final 23-squad for Euro 2016 on 31 May; it means giving up five players convened for the preparation tournament in Italy. Romania will play against France (10 June), Switzerland (15 June) and Albania (19 June), but until the championship kicks off, there will be another friendly versus Georgia, in Bucharest, on 3 June.