Romania vs Spain facts

Co-hosts Romania kick off their third successive UEFA European Under-21 Championship campaign at the Steaua Stadium in Bucharest against Spain, the joint most successful side in the competition's history.

Romania, who are staging the 2023 competition alongside Georgia, reached the semi-finals in 2019 but failed to progress beyond the group stage two years ago, when Spain, as holders, reached the knockout rounds for the fifth time in the last six editions of the competition.

Group B is completed by Ukraine and Croatia, with all six matches in Bucharest at either the Steaua Stadium or the Giulești Stadium.

Previous meetings

Spain were 4-1 winners against Romania in a friendly at the CFR Cluj Stadium on 23 September 2022, Abel Ruiz scoring twice in the first half (8, 18) and Rodrigo Riquelme late in the second (80, 90) with David Miculescu (85) providing the home team's sole response.

That was the sides' first fixture since a March 2019 friendly in Granada, Mikel Merino's 67th-minute strike for Spain proving enough for a 1-0 home victory.

The countries have not met in the European U21 Championship since 1987, when Loren scored the only goal of Spain's away victory in Buzău in the preliminaries for the 1988 finals. Spain had also won 1-0 at home in Córdoba the previous year, thanks to another Loren goal, and went on to finish first in qualifying Group 1 on ten points, four ahead of runners-up Romania, before losing 3-1 on aggregate to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.

Both teams had won at home in the preliminaries for the inaugural 1978 competition, a Dani hat-trick helping Spain to a 3-0 victory in Madrid in April 1977 before a 4-0 Romania success in Bucharest six months later, but both were eliminated after finishing behind Yugoslavia in their section.

Arnau Tenas, Jon Pacheco and Álex Baena were all in the Spain side that beat Romania 1-0 in the European U19 Championship qualifying round on 11 October 2019. Andres Dumitrescu and substitute Louis Munteanu featured for Romania.

Form guide

Romania

Having not qualified for the U21 tournament between hosting the 1998 finals and 2019, Romania are making their third successive appearance.

The 2023 co-hosts' best result came in 2019, when they finished top of Group C before conceding two late goals to lose 4-2 to Germany in the semi-finals.

In 2021, a side coached by Adrian Mutu finished third in Group A despite remaining unbeaten in their three fixtures (W1 D2), losing out on goals scored to the Netherlands and eventual champions Germany after all three teams had picked up five points.

Romania are unbeaten in their last five competitive U21 fixtures (W2 D3) and have suffered only one defeat in their last 12 (W7 D4). They are unbeaten in all six of their group games at the finals (W3 D3).

After the 2021 finals Mutu was succeeded as coach by Florin Bratu, who in turn made way for Emil Săndoi in August 2022.

Spain

The joint most successful side in European U21 Championship history with five titles, level with Italy, Spain are in the final tournament for the 11th time overall and the seventh in eight editions, failing to qualify only in 2015 during that sequence.

La Rojita have been champions in three of the last six tournaments – 2011, 2013 and 2019 – and have reached the semi-finals or better in each of the last three. They have not failed to progress from their group since 2009.

Two years ago, a team coached by Luis de la Fuente took seven points to finish top of Group B ahead of Italy before seeing off Croatia 2-1 after extra time in the quarter-finals, only to lose 1-0 to neighbours Portugal in the last four.

Spain won all eight of their qualifying fixtures for the 2023 finals, finishing nine points clear of runners-up Slovakia in Group C. They scored 37 goals and conceded only five. Abel Ruiz was the team's leading individual marksman with seven goals.

On 8 December 2022 De La Fuente was appointed coach of Spain's senior side following Luis Enrique's departure after the FIFA World Cup and replaced by Santi.

Links and trivia

Săndoi played 90 minutes as Romania won 2-0 away to Spain in a Cáceres friendly on 17 April 1991.