England v Romania facts

England and Romania meet for the first time at the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament in the second round of Group C games.

• England are looking for their first points having conceded two late goals to lose 2-1 to France in their opening fixture, Phil Foden having opened the scoring. In contrast Romania recorded their first ever finals victory on matchday one, beating Croatia 4-1 thanks to strikes from George Puşcaş, Ianis Hagi, Tudor Băluţă and Adrian Petre.

Previous meetings
• England were 2-1 winners in a 2018 friendly against Romania at Molineux. Captain Demarai Gray (8 minutes) and debutant Jake Clarke-Salter (73) got the England goals in Wolverhampton, Valentin Costache pulling one back 11 minutes from time.

• The line-ups at Molineux on 24 March 2018 were:
England: Henderson, Alexander-Arnold, Tomori, Clarke-Salter, Walker-Peters, Maitland-Niles (Onomah 70), Ejaria, Dowell (Maddison 84), Lookman, Gray (Kenny 59), Abraham (Calvert-Lewin 84).
Romania: Radu, Butean (Căpuşă 86), Ghiţă, Paşcanu, Radu (Olteanu 69), Oaidă (Ciobanu 45), Nedelcu (Dumitrescu 86), Dobre (Costache 62), Hagi, Coman, Ivan (Petre 69).

• This is the sides' first competitive U21 meeting since October 2010, when they were paired together in play-offs for the following year's final tournament. England were 2-1 first-leg winners in the home first leg in Norwich thanks to goals from Jordan Henderson and Chris Smalling, going through by the same aggregate score after a goalless second game in Botosani.

• England also had the better of the sides' matches in qualifying for the 1986 finals, picking up a 0-0 away draw in April 1985 before a 3-0 home win that September in which Steve Hodge scored twice.

• Romania's sole competitive win against England came in the sides' first such fixture – a 4-0 qualifying success in October 1980 with Alexandru Terheș hitting a hat-trick. That proved to be England's sole qualifying defeat, Adrian Heath scoring twice in a 3-0 home win in the return, as they topped their section and went on to win the trophy.

• Foden scored twice in England's 3-0 European U17 Championship qualifying round defeat of Romania in October 2016. Morgan Gibbs-White was an unused substitute.

• Petre got Romania's goal in a 2-1 defeat by England in the U17 EURO elite round in March 2015. Virgil Ghiță, Hagi and substitutes Florinel Coman and Andrei Ciobanu also featured for Romania; Jay Dasilva was a first-half substitute for England.

Form guide
England
• England have qualified for their seventh successive U21 final tournament – the longest ongoing sequence in the competition. They were semi-finalists in Poland two years ago, losing to eventual champions Germany on penalties.

• That was the third time England had made it past the initial group stage in those six finals appearances but the first in four; runners-up in 2009, they also lost in the last four in 2007.

• This is England's ninth participation in an eight or 12-team U21 finals; five of those previous eight campaigns ended in the group stage.

• Champions in 1982 and 1984, England have reached four further semi-finals, in 1978, 1980, 1986 and 1988.

• Having lost to France, England have won only three of their last 14 group games at the final tournament (D4 L7).

• In qualifying for these finals Aidy Boothroyd's side won Group 4 by eight points – one of five teams to reach the finals without losing a game (W8 D2). They won their last three fixtures, and eight of the last nine, while their tally of four goals conceded was the joint lowest along with Romania.

• With that 2017 semi-final shoot-out defeat by Germany counted as a draw, England were unbeaten in 22 competitive fixtures (W16 D6), since a 3-1 loss to Italy on matchday three of the 2015 finals, before losing on matchday one.

• Dasilva, Mason Mount and Ryan Sessegnon were all part of England's victorious 2017 European U19 Championship squad, Dasilva captaining the side.

• Foden and Gibbs-White helped England win the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, Foden collecting the Golden Ball for the competition's best player.

• Freddie Woodman, Dean Henderson, Jake Clarke-Salter, Jonjoe Kenny, Fikayo Tomori, Ezri Konsa, Kieran Dowell, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Dominic Solanke were all part of the England squad that triumphed at the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Solanke won the Golden Ball and Woodman the Golden Glove.

• Woodman, Kenny and Solanke also helped England to victory at U17 EURO 2014.

Romania
• Romania are appearing in the final tournament for only the second time, and the first in 21 years; they lost to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals of the 1998 tournament, which Romania hosted.

• Romania lost all three games at those 1998 finals; they were subsequently beaten by Germany (0-1) and Russia (1-2) to finish in eighth place.

• Since that appearance 21 years ago, Romania have reached the play-offs twice, losing over two legs to France (0-5) ahead of the 2002 finals and England (1-2) in 2011 qualifying.

• This time round, however, Romania were one of five teams to qualify unbeaten (W7 D3), with their four goals against the joint lowest total conceded along with England. They won their final four qualifiers, keeping clean sheets in the last three to make it six overall in the group.

Links and trivia
• Have played in England:
Alex Pașcanu (Leicester 2016-)
Vlad Dragomir (Arsenal 2015–18)

• Băluță joined Brighton in January this year, spending the second half of the campaign back on loan at Viitorul Constanța.

• Romania head coach Mirel Rădoi was captain of the Steaua București side beaten 4-3 on aggregate by English side Middlesbrough in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup semi-finals (1-0 home, 2-4 away).

• At 38, Rădoi is the youngest coach at the final tournament – by nine years.

• Puşcaş scored twice in Romania's 4-0 win away to Malta in a UEFA EURO 2020 qualifier on 10 June. Fellow U21 squad members Ionuţ Nedelcearu, Hagi and Băluţă were also in the starting XI, with Dennis Man coming on in the second half. Puşcaş was also a starter and Hagi a substitute in a 2-2 draw away to Norway in the same competition three days earlier.