Romania v Hungary background

Romania look to maintain their current unbeaten run against Hungary – now under caretaker coach Pál Dárdai following Attila Pintér's departure – when the sides meet in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying Group F. The neighbours were also paired in 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification.

Match background
• Romania's overall record in 21 senior games against their neighbours is W5 D6 L10 (W3 D3 L3 in Bucharest – W2 D3 L6 in Hungary). Those matches include a 1972 UEFA European Championship quarter-final replay, which Hungary won 2-1 on neutral territory in Belgrade. They do not include Romania's 3-0 victory over Hungary in the 2004 Cyprus international tournament, since such fixtures are not recognised as official FIFA internationals.

• Hungary had much the better of the teams' early exchanges; Romania beat Hungary for the first time at the 16th attempt in their last UEFA European Championship meeting, on 5 June 1999, the second game in a seven-match (W5 D2) unbeaten sequence against their neighbours which persists to this day.

• The sides last met in 2014 World Cup qualifying; Sándor Egervári's Hungary held Victor Piţurcă's Romania to a 2-2 draw in Budapest on 22 March 2013, Adrian Mutu (68) and Alexandru Chipciu (90+2) cancelling out goals from Vilmos Vanczák (16) and Balázs Dzsudzsák (71). Ciprian Marica (2), Mihai Pintilii (31) and Cristian Tănase (88) scored in a 3-0 Romania success in the return fixture on 6 September the same year.

• The countries' first UEFA European Championship encounters were tight; Rudolf Illovszky's Hungary held Angelo Niculescu's Romania 1-1 in Budapest on 29 April 1972, László Branikovits (11) striking early before Lajos Sătmăreanu (56) replied. Romania pegged Hungary back twice more in the return fixture in Bucharest on 14 May, Niolae Dobrin (14) and Alexandru Neagu (81) annulling efforts from István Szőke (5) and Lajos Kocsis (36).

• It took a replay in Belgrade on 17 May to decide who went to the finals in Belgium: Neagu (34) once again responded to a Kocsis strike (27), but Romania had no answer to Szőke's 89th-minute winner.

• The teams' most recent UEFA European Championship tussles came in UEFA EURO 2000 qualifying. János Hrutka (82) hit back on 14 October 1998 after Viorel Moldovan (50) broke the deadlock in Budapest, Bertalan Bicskei's side resisting Piţurcă's men in a 1-1 draw. Adrian Ilie (2) and Dorinel Munteanu (15) scored as Romania won the return fixture 2-0 on 5 June 1999 – as mentioned before, their first victory against Hungary.

• The nations have met in 23 UEFA age-group tournament games with both boasting the record W11 D1 L11. However, seven of the eight most recent matches have been won by the Romanians.

• Romanian clubs have had marginally the better of their ten UEFA competition encounters with Hungarian counterparts: W6 D0 L4. The countries' teams also met six times in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the non-UEFA affiliated precursor to the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League: each nation posted three wins.