Football: Hodgson is worried by Romanians

First Edition

SWITZERLAND must perform a difficult balancing act against Romania in their World Cup match today in Detroit, pushing forward to score while keeping a tight grip on their opponents' deadly duo of Gheorghe Hagi and Florin Raducioiu.

Roy Hodgson, Switzerland's English manager, knows that the Romanians, who beat Colombia

3-1 in their first match in group A, will punish any defensive lapses.

'They seem to have more strengths than weaknesses. They're well-organised, confident and very experienced at this level,' Hodgson said.

Switzerland managed only a 1-1 draw against the United States in their first match but were seriously weakened by the absence of striker Adrian Knup, who has scored 21 goals in 31 internationals.

Hodgson and Knup do not appearto be seeing eye to eye at the moment. Knup was dropped for the US game, even though he insisted he had fully recovered from an ankle injury.

SWITZERLAND (from): Pascolo (Servette); Herr (Sion), Geiger (Sion), Hottiger (Sion), Quentin (Sion), Ohrel (Servette), Bregy (Young Boys Berne), Bickel (Grasshopper Zurich), Sutter (Nuremberg), Sforza (Kaiserslautern), Wyss (Aarau), Chapuisat (Borussia Dortmund).

ROMANIA (probable): Stelea (Rapid Bucharest); Petrescu (Genoa), Prodan (Steaua Bucharest), Mihali (Dinamo Bucharest), Belodedici (Valencia), Munteanu (Cercle Bruges), Popescu (PSV Eindhoven), Lupescu (Bayer Leverkusen), Dumitrescu (Steaua Bucharest), Hagi (Brescia), Raducioiu (Milan).