Romania v Northern Ireland background
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Article summary
Romania will look to avoid a repeat of their only previous competitive home match with Northern Ireland as the sides meet in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying Group F.
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Article body
Effectively denied a finals place in the sides' last competitive meeting, Romania can gain belated revenge on Northern Ireland as the sides reconvene for their first UEFA European Championship meeting in Group F.
Match background
• Romania's record in four senior international meetings with Northern Ireland is W1 D0 L3 (W0 D0 L1 at home, W0 D0 L2 in Belfast). Those matches include a friendly on neutral territory, in the United States, which Romania won 2-0.
• Romania broke their duck in the sides' most recent encounter, the aforementioned friendly fixture in Chicago on 27 May 2006, James Quinn's 38th-minute dismissal for Lawrie Sanchez's Northern Ireland following goals from Tiberiu Bălan (7) and Daniel Niculae (13).
• Bryan Hamilton's Northern Ireland had previously beaten Anghel Iordănescu's Romania 2-0 at home in a 23 March 1994 friendly, Steve Morrow (42) and Phil Gray (50) the men on target.
• The sides' only previous competitive meetings were in 1986 FIFA World Cup qualifying. Billy Bingham's Northern Ireland beat Mircea Lucescu's Romania 3-2 in Belfast on 12 September 1984. Gheorghe Hagi (36) scored his first international goal to cancel out an own goal from team-mate Gino Iorgulescu (34), but goals from Norman Whiteside (61) and Martin O'Neill (64) put the home side in front before Ion Geolgău (80) replied.
• Jimmy Quinn (29) scored the only goal in the return fixture on 16 October 1985, Northern Ireland winning 1-0 in what was the sides' penultimate qualifier. Romania went on to beat Turkey 3-1 in Izmir, but finished third behind Northern Ireland, who held England 0-0 at Wembley to make it to the final tournament in Mexico.
• Romania have won all five of their UEFA age-group fixtures against Northern Irish sides, scoring over three goals a game on average.
• The six meetings between the nations' clubs in UEFA competiton have left the Romanian sides with the record W3 D2 L1. Those include an 11-0 win for FC Dinamo Bucureşti against Crusaders FC in the first round of the 1973/74 European Champion Clubs' Cup.
