Under-21 Group A: Spain vs Romania facts

Spain will seek to continue their winning start to UEFA European Under-21 Championship Group A as they take on Romania for the second successive final tournament, this time at the National Football Stadium in Bratislava on Matchday 2.

The five-time champions opened with a 3-2 victory against hosts Slovakia at the same venue on 11 June, Cesar Tarrega's 90th-minute header clinching three points after two goals in three first-half minutes from Marc Pubill and Mateo Joseph had been cancelled out.

Romania, meanwhile, went down 1-0 to Italy in Trnava on Matchday 1, Louis Munteanu having a penalty saved on the stroke of half-time.

Previous European U21 Championship meetings

Matches 5
Spain wins 4
Romania wins 1
Draws 0
Spain goals 8
Romania goals 5

The teams met on Matchday 1 at the 2023 finals, second-half goals from Álex Baena (55), Miranda (62) and Sergio Gómez (90+5) giving Santi Denia's Spain side a 3-0 win against a Romania team coached by Emil Sandoi at the Steaua Stadium in Bucharest on 21 June 2023.

The countries had 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.

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.

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.

Form guide

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 12th time overall and the eighth in nine editions, failing to qualify only in 2015 during that sequence.

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

Two years ago, a side coached by Santi Denia – who had succeeded Luis de la Fuente in December 2022 – finished top of Group B before beating Switzerland (2-1 aet) and Ukraine (5-1) only to lose 1-0 to England in the final, captain Abel Ruiz having a penalty saved nine minutes into added time.

This time round Denia's side won nine of their ten qualifiers (D1), scoring 28 goals and conceding only five, to finish nine points above runners-up Belgium at the top of Group B.

Samu Omorodion was Spain's top scorer in qualifying with six goals.

Romania

Having not qualified for the U21 tournament between hosting the 1998 finals and 2019, Romania are making their fourth 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 2023 a team coached by Emil Săndoi finished bottom of Group B behind Spain, Ukraine and Croatia having failed to win a game (D1 L2) or score a goal (A4).

With Daniel Pancu having taken over as head coach, Romania finishing top of Group E to qualify for these finals, winning seven of their ten matches (D1 L2).

Louis Munteanu was Romania's top scorer in qualifying with five goals.

Links and trivia

Alberto Moleiro made his Spain debut in the 2022 friendly against Romania.