Stuart Pearce insists his England Under-21 team must show Romania every respect when they look to defend a slender 2-1 lead in the second leg of their European Championship play-off.
The youngsters secured a narrow advantage from a tight affair at Carrow Road on Friday night, with a late winning goal from Manchester United defender Chris Smalling, and now head to the Municipal Stadium in Botosani.
"Romania won their group, we only qualified as runners-up to Greece in our group. Romania are the favourites over two legs to win the tie," Pearce said.
The Romanians - led by Dinamo Bucharest's Marius Alexe, a reported target for Chelsea, and playmaker Gabriel Torje - were a well-organised unit in the first leg and looked dangerous on the break.
While an own goal from Ryan Bertrand was their only reward for an industrious display, Pearce knows Romania cannot be taken lightly after boasting an impressive record during the qualifying stages when they won all five of their home matches, conceding just once.
Pearce continued: "They have conceded very few goals during qualification and we are very respectful of Romania.
"Whichever side gets to the finals in the summer will have worked very hard to get there."
Pearce explained: "We have watched Romania play on DVD across six or seven matches in qualification, and obviously now we have played them ourselves.
"They are a very dangerous counter-attacking side and have a lot of quality players within their team, so they have to be very well respected.
"I think the tie is still 50/50 and in the balance. On Friday night, I think it was a fantastic advert for under-21 football and I think tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday) will be the same."
