Belgium and Romania will be meeting at a major tournament for the first time. This is their first encounter since a Bucharest friendly in November 2012 – Romania won 2-1.

The head-to-head between Belgium and Romania is perfectly balanced with five wins each and two draws. In recent times, Belgium have won only won of their last five matches against Romania (D1 L3), a 2-1 friendly win in November 2011.

Belgium are looking to avoid losing their first two matches at a UEFA European Championship tournament for the very first time. They last did so at a major tournament back in 1930 at the inaugural World Cup.

Following their 3-0 win on MD1 of this year’s UEFA European Championship, Romania could win two matches in the same major tournament (World Cup/EUROs) for just the third time after the 1994 (3 wins) and 1998 (2 wins) World Cup finals.

Following a run of 13 wins in 14 group stage matches at major tournaments (L1 – World Cup/EUROs), Belgium have since gone three such games without a win (D1 L2) for the first time since a four-game run across EURO 2000 and World Cup 2002 (D2 L2).

Romania recorded their biggest ever victory at a major tournament (World Cup/EUROs) on MD1 against Ukraine (3-0) with EURO 2024 already just the second time the Tricolours have scored 3+ goals in a single UEFA European Championship across their six total such campaigns (also EURO 2000 – 4 goals).

Romania’s 29% possession against Ukraine on MD1 was the lowest share for a winning team on record (since 1980) in a single match at the UEFA European Championship – despite this, they faced just two shots on target, their fewest in a major tournament match since EURO 2008 against France (1).

Belgium have failed to score in three consecutive matches at a major tournament (World Cup/EUROs) for the very first time (74 matches) – across those goalless games the Red Devils have registered 42 shots and 11 shots on target from an expected goals figure of 5.7. 

Nine of Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku’s 11 goals across the UEFA European Championship and World Cup have come in the group stages, including three at EURO 2020; he could however fail to score in back-to-back starts at a major tournament for the first time since the 2018 World Cup (4 in a row).   

Dennis Man assisted two goals on MD1 against Ukraine to become the first Romanian to provide multiple assists in a UEFA European Championship match; since Romania manager Edward Iordănescu’s appointment in January 2022, Man is his nation’s joint-leading goalscorer (4 goals) and joint-leading assist provider (4 assists).