Romania vs Northern Ireland

Bucharest’s Arena Nationala forms the backdrop for the first international friendly between Romania and Northern Ireland since 2006.

After missing out on Euro 2024, Romania will feature in the upcoming tournament in Germany, largely thanks to a three-game winning streak down the final stretch of their qualifying campaign en route to a top-table finish in Group I ahead of Switzerland. Indeed, the Tricolour enjoyed a stellar Euro 2024 qualifying cycle, going unbeaten in all ten matches (W6, D4) while only conceding five goals at an average of 0.5 per game. Moreover, you’d need to go back to November 2022 for Romania’s last international failure, with Edward Iordanescu’s side going unbeaten in 11 straight outings since a 2-1 friendly loss to Slovenia on home turf (W7, D4). Scoring first would likely inspire another morale-boosting result, considering five of Romania’s seven wins during the abovementioned run came ‘to nil.’

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s busted attempt to reach the Euros for the first time since 2016 left a bitter taste in Michael O’Neill’s mouth, not least because his side only won three of their ten Euro 2024 qualifiers (L7). A lack of firepower saw the Norn Iron score a meager average of 0.9 goals per match during qualifying, though they signed off with dignity, beating Denmark 2-0 last time out. Though it was a futile win, the visitors can draw inspiration from that impressive performance as they bid to post their first H2H victory against Romania since 1985. Since a 1-0 triumph on Romanian soil almost four decades ago, they’ve gone winless in five H2Hs (D3, L2), all of which featured under 2.5 goals.