Under-21 Group A: Romania vs Slovakia facts

Romania and Slovakia conclude their UEFA European Under-21 Championship Group A campaigns at the National Football Stadium in Bratislava.

Neither side can reach the quarter-finals having lost their first two fixtures, hosts Slovakia conceding in the 90th-minute to lose 2-3 against Spain on Matchday 1 before a 0-1 reverse to Italy. The latter was also the scoreline when Romania met Italy in their first game; they then conceded twice in the last five minutes to go down 1-2 against Spain.

Previous European U21 Championship meetings

Matches 6
Romania wins 2
Slovakia wins 2
Draws 2
Romania goals 5
Slovakia goals 4

Slovakia claimed a thrilling 4-3 victory in the sides' last fixture, in a friendly in Senec on 7 June 2022. Adam Tučný gave the home side a 17th-minute lead but Jovan Markovic (24) and Marius Corbu (33) turned the match in Romania's favour before half-time. Markovic scored his second goal and Romania's third three minutes into the second period and, though Matúš Vojtko reduced the deficit from the penalty spot five minutes later, Romania still looked set for victory only for late strikes from Slovakia substitutes Marko Kelemen (80) and Adrián Kaprálik (83) to engineer a late turnaround.

Goalkeeper Ľubomír Belko came on for Slovakia with Corbu in Romania's starting line-up.

This is the first time the teams have met in a competitive fixture since the 2013 qualifying competition, when Romania won 2-0 both away and at home. Gabriel Enache scored both goals in Michalovce on 1 June 2012 with Mihai Răduț, a penalty, and Lucian Filip on target in the second half in Mogosoaia four days later – although neither side would reach the final tournament.

Slovakia had recorded a win and a draw in each of the teams' previous two qualifying pairings. After a goalless draw in Bucharest in the 1996 qualifying competition, Samuel Slovák scored twice and Szilárd Nemeth once in a 3-1 Slovakia victory in Presov.

Slovakia's Pavol Sedlák got the only goal in Bucharest in the 2000 qualifying competition, the Bratislav return ending goalless.

Tomáš Suslov scored twice as Slovakia won 4-2 away to Romania in an Under-18 friendly on 24 October 2019; Ovidiu Perianu got both goals for the home side, both penalties in the final ten minutes.

Suslov had also opened the scoring in a 2-1 Slovakia success at the same venue two days earlier; Ianis Stoica levelled for Romania.

Form guide

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).

Romania have won only one of their last nine group matches (D4 L4).

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.

Slovakia

This is Slovakia's third appearance in the finals – they are the first country to host the tournament twice since a group stage was introduced in 2000.

Fourth as hosts on debut in 2000 – losing 1-0 to Spain in the third-place play-off – Slovakia had to wait until 2017 for the second appearance, failing to progress from Group A despite ending as section runners-up behind England having won two of their three games.

Matchday 2 marked the first time Slovakia had lost successive final tournament matches.

Slovakia lost 5-3 on aggregate to Ukraine in the 2023 play-offs (3-2 h, 0-3 a) having finished second to Spain in their qualifying section.

Jaroslav Kentoš has been in charge of Slovakia since 2019.

Links and trivia

Octavian Popescu played 90 minutes in both legs of FCSB's 2-0 aggregate win against Slovakian club DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda in the 2022/23 UEFA Conference League third qualifying round.