Euro 2016: How many Romanians believe their team will beat France in the opening match?

The interest for the European Championship in France is rather low in Romania. Only little over half (53%) of the 1,057 respondents to an IRES survey said they were interested in this competition. One in four (26.5%) Romanians who are interested in football believe that Romania’s national team will beat hosts France in the opening match of the Euro 2016 tonight while 30% expect France to win the match. The remaining 43% believe the match is going to end in a draw, according to a survey conducted by local social research institute IRES. Almost a quarter (24%) of the respondents interested in Romania’s games at the Euro 2016 said they expected the match to end 1-1. Some 12% expect France to win 2-1 while 11% believe the score will be 2-1 for Romania. However, only 61% of those interested (about a third of the total respondents) know details about Romania’s participation at the Euro 2016, and could name at least one team in Romania’s group. Some 60% of them believe that Romania will finish second in Group A, 25% think that Romania will be third, but there are also 8% who think Romania has a shot at first place. Half (48%) of the respondents interested in Euro 2016 believe that Romania will make it out of the group stage and be eliminated in the first know-out round, 18% believe Romania will reach the quarter finals, 10% see the team in the semifinals, and 5% aim for the final. Some 3% see Romania as the surprise winner of this year’s tournament, but 8% expect the team not to pass group stage. More than half of the group (55%) don’t know who Romania’s captain is and a quarter (24%) don’t know the coach. However, 70% could correctly name Anghel Iordanescu as Romania’s manager while 30% knew that Napoli’s defender Vlad Chiriches is Romania’s captain at the Euro. The survey was made on June 9 on a sample of 1,057 respondents over 18. Comment: Six reasons why Romania may win the Euro 2016 opening match against France Where to watch the Euro 2016 matches in Bucharest, other Romanian cities? editor@romania-insider.com