Romania national under-21 football team

Romania's national under-21 football team, also known as Romania under-21s or Romania U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the Romania national football team.

Romania U-21

Nickname(s)	Tricolorii mici (The Small Tricolours)
Association	Romanian Football Federation
Head coach	Adrian Mutu
Captain	Virgil Ghiță
Most caps	Ionuț Luțu (28)
Top scorer	George Puşcaş (18)
Home stadium	Ilie Oană
First colours Second colours
Biggest win
Armenia 0–5 Romania  (Yerevan, Armenia; 16 November 2004)  Azerbaijan 0–5 Romania  (Trabzon, Turkey; 25 April 1995)
Biggest defeat
Germany 8–0 Romania  (Magdeburg, Germany; 9 September 2014)
UEFA U-21 Championship
Appearances	3 (first in 1998)
Best result	Semi-Finals 2019

This team is for Romanian players aged under 21 at the start of the calendar year in which a two-year European Under-21 Football Championship campaign begins, so some players can remain with the squad until the age of 23. As long as they are eligible, players can play for Romania at any level, making it possible to play for the U21s, senior side, and again for the U21s. It is also possible to play for one country at youth level and another at senior level (providing the player has not played a senior competitive game in his previous country.)

The U-21 team came into existence, following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions, in 1976. Romania qualified for the 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, and under Victor Pițurcă reached the quarter-finals, where they were knocked out by the Netherlands. Romania had been 1–0 up, but were eventually beaten 2–1. The Romanian lineup included players like: Cosmin Contra, Bogdan Lobonț, Cătălin Munteanu, Ionel Dănciulescu and Ion Luțu.

Romania U21s do not have a permanent home. They play in stadia dotted all around Romania, in an attempt to encourage younger fans in all areas of the country to get behind Romania. Because of the lower demand compared to the senior national team, smaller grounds can be used. The team's manager is Adrian Mutu.

Romania once again qualified unbeaten for the finals after topping their group in the qualifying series. The Romanians reached semi-final of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship for the first time in their history in the 2019 UEFA Under-21 Euro but eventually lost 4-2 to defending champions Germany who scored twice in the dying moments. Romania qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics for their first Olympics since 1964. Overall, Romania was a revelation at the tournament, beating both England and Croatia (4-2 and 4-1), and looked on course for a shock before Germany fought back to make the final.

Competitive record

UEFA U-21 Championship Record

UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship record									UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship Qualification record
Year	Round	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1978	Did not qualify								4	1	0	3	5	8
1980									4	2	0	2	7	3
1982									6	2	1	3	9	12
1984									6	2	1	3	8	12
1986									6	1	4	1	5	7
1988									6	3	0	3	7	7
1990									6	3	0	3	8	7
1992									6	2	0	4	5	9
1994									8	5	0	3	13	10
1996									10	4	4	2	17	10
1998	Quarter-Finals	3	0	0	3	2	5		8	8	0	0	18	4
2000	Did not qualify								8	3	3	2	10	8
2002									8	5	1	2	13	5
2004									8	2	1	5	6	7
2006									10	6	1	3	17	8
2007									2	1	0	1	4	5
2009									8	4	3	1	11	3
2011									10	8	1	1	23	6
2013									8	4	2	2	11	6
2015									8	3	3	2	14	19
2017									10	5	1	4	15	14
2019	Semi-Finals	4	2	1	1	10	7		10	7	3	0	19	4
2021	Qualified							10	6	2	2	22	7
Total	3/22	7	2	1	4	12	12		160	87	31	52	268	181

Olympic Games

Football at the Summer Olympics was first played officially in 1908. The Olympiads between 1896 and 1980 was only open for amateur players. The 1984 and 1988 tournaments were open to players with no appearances in the FIFA World Cup. After the 1988 Olympics, the football event was changed into a tournament for U23 or U21 teams with a maximum of three older players. See Romania national football team for competition record from 1908 until 1988.

Olympic Games record										Olympic Games Qualification record **
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D *	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1992	Did not qualify									6	2	0	4	5	9
1996										10	4	4	2	17	10
2000										8	3	3	2	10	8
2004										8	2	1	5	6	7
2008										2	1	0	1	4	5
2012										10	8	1	1	23	6
2016										8	3	3	2	14	19
2020	Qualified									14	9	4	1	29	11
2024	To be determined									0	0	0	0	0	0
2028										0	0	0	0	0	0

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Includes both qualification phase and final tournament of UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

***Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

EURO 2021

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	10	8	2	0	21	9	+12	26	Final tournament		—	2–1	1–1	2–1	2–1	5–1
2	Romania	10	6	2	2	22	7	+15	20			1–1	—	3–0	4–1	3–0	4–1
3	Ukraine	10	5	1	4	17	11	+6	16			2–3	1–0	—	0–2	3–0	4–0
4	Finland	10	4	1	5	14	15	−1	13			0–1	1–3	0–2	—	1–1	4–0
5	Northern Ireland	10	2	3	5	7	13	−6	9			0–1	0–0	1–0	2–3	—	0–0
6	Malta	10	0	1	9	4	30	−26	1			1–3	0–3	1–4	0–1	0–2	—

Source: UEFA

Results and fixtures

  Win   Draw   Loss

2019

21 March 2019 Friendly	Spain	1–0	Romania	Granada, Spain
19:45 UTC+02:00	Merino  67'	Report		Stadium: Nuevo Estadio de Los Cármenes

25 March 2019 Unofficial friendly	Romania	1–0	Denmark	Marbella, Spain
19:15 UTC+02:00	Drăguș  42'			Stadium: Marbella Football Center

18 June 2019 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship	Romania	4–1	Croatia	Serravalle, San Marino
18:30	Pușcaș  11' (pen.) Hagi  14' Băluță  66' Petre  90+3'	Report	Vlašić  18'	Stadium: San Marino Stadium Attendance: 4,700 Referee: Bobby Madden (Scotland)

21 June 2019 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship	England	2–4	Romania	Cesena, Italy
18:30	Gray  79' Abraham  87'	Report	Pușcaș  76' (pen.) Hagi  85' Coman  89', 90+3'	Stadium: Stadio Dino Manuzzi Attendance: 8,440 Referee: Andreas Ekberg (Sweden)

24 June 2019 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship	France	0–0	Romania	Cesena, Italy
21:00		Report		Stadium: Stadio Dino Manuzzi Attendance: 12,861 Referee: Georgi Kabakov (Bulgaria)

27 June 2019 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship	Germany	4–2	Romania	Bologna, Italy
18:00	Amiri  21', 90+4' Waldschmidt  51' (pen.), 90'	Report	Pușcaș  26' (pen.), 44'	Stadium: Stadio Renato Dall'Ara Attendance: 16,211 Referee: Orel Grinfeld (Israel)

10 September 2019 2021 UEFA U21 Q	Denmark	2–1	Romania	Aalborg, Denmark
19:30 UTC+02:00	Olsen  3', 55'	Report	Coman  80'	Stadium: Aalborg Stadium Referee: Erez Papir (Israel)

10 October 2019 2021 UEFA U21 Q	Romania	3–0	Ukraine	Ploieşti, Romania
20:30 UTC+02:00	Moruţan  75' Petre  80', 90+4'	Report		Stadium: Ilie Oană Referee: Bartosz Frankowski (Poland)

14 October 2019 2021 UEFA U21 Q	Romania	3–0	Northern Ireland	Voluntari, Romania
20:30 UTC+02:00	Băluţă  48' Mihăilă  59' Ciobanu  67'	Report		Stadium: Anghel Iordănescu Referee: Nejc Kajtazović (Slovenia)

14 November 2019 2021 UEFA U21 Q	Romania	4–1	Finland	Voluntari, Romania
UTC+02:00	Mihăilă  8', 16', 78' Hyvärinen  45+5' (o.g.)	Report	Kairinen  3'	Stadium: Anghel Iordănescu Attendance: 2,325 Referee: Robert Hennessy (Republic of Ireland)

19 November 2019 2021 UEFA U21 Q	Northern Ireland	0–0	Romania	Ballymena, Northern Ireland
UTC+02:00		Report		Stadium: Ballymena Showgrounds

2020

5 August 2020 Unofficial friendly	Romania	6–0	Farul Constanța	Mogoșoaia, Romania
UTC+02:00	Chindriș  32' Costache  42' Ganea  49', 73' Cîmpanu  83', 90'	Report

4 September 2020 2021 UEFA U21 Q	Finland	1–3	Romania	Turku, Finland
UTC+02:00	Soisalo  25'	Report	Olaru  22' Mihăilă  58' Ciobanu  85'	Stadium: Veritas Stadion, Turku Attendance: 0 Referee: Anastasios Papapetrou (Greece)

8 September 2020 2021 UEFA U21 Q	Malta	0–3	Romania	Ta' Qali, Malta
UTC+02:00			Man  6' Costache  41' (pen.) Haruț  83'	Stadium: Centenary Stadium, Ta' Qali Attendance: 0 Referee: Gergő Bogár (Hungary)

9 October 2020 2021 UEFA U21 Q	Ukraine	1–0	Romania	Kiev, Ukraine
UTC+02:00	Buletsa  80' (pen.)			Stadium: Obolon Arena

13 October 2020 2021 UEFA U21 Q	Romania	4–1	Malta	Giurgiu, Romania
UTC+02:00	Mățan  17' Man  27', 40' (pen.) Ganea  36'		Elouni  51'	Stadium: Stadionul Marin Anastasovici

17 November 2020 2021 UEFA U21 Q	Romania	1-1	Denmark	Ploiești, Romania
UTC+02:00	Costache  72'		Laursen  50' (pen.)	Stadium: Ilie Oană Stadium

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 8 match against  Denmark, on 17 November 2020.[1]

Caps and goals as of 17 November 2020 after the match against  Denmark.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Andrei Vlad	15 April 1999	8	0	FCSB
12	GK	Mihai Aioani	7 November 1999	2	0	Chindia Târgoviște
23	GK	George Micle	8 November 2001	0	0	Argeș Pitești
4	DF	Alex Pașcanu	28 September 1998	23	0	Ponferradina
2	DF	Radu Boboc	24 April 1999	12	0	Viitorul Constanța
19	DF	Denis Haruț	25 February 1999	5	1	Botoșani
17	DF	Ricardo Grigore	7 April 1999	3	0	Dinamo București
15	DF	Denis Ciobotariu	10 June 1998	3	0	CFR Cluj
18	DF	Ștefan Vlădoiu	28 December 1998	2	0	Universitatea Craiova
3	DF	Raul Opruț	4 January 1998	2	0	Hermannstadt
10	MF	Ianis Hagi	22 October 1998	15	4	Rangers
22	MF	Darius Olaru	3 March 1998	12	1	FCSB
9	MF	Olimpiu Moruțan	25 April 1999	9	1	FCSB
20	MF	Alexandru Mățan	29 August 1999	8	1	Viitorul Constanța
14	MF	Marius Marin	30 August 1998	7	0	Pisa
5	MF	Cătălin Itu	26 October 1999	4	0	CFR Cluj
8	MF	Carlo Casap	29 December 1998	3	0	Viitorul Constanța
16	MF	Claudiu Petrila	7 November 2000	1	0	Sepsi OSK
6	MF	Gabriel Simion	22 May 1998	0	0	FCSB
21	FW	Valentin Costache	2 August 1998	8	3	CFR Cluj
11	FW	George Cîmpanu	8 October 2000	1	0	Universitatea Craiova
7	MF	Nicolae Carnat	8 April 1998	1	0	CFR Cluj

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the Romania under-21 squad and remain eligible:

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Teodor Axinte	2 February 2000	0	0	Politehnica Iași	v.  Malta, 13 October 2020
GK	Horațiu Moldovan	20 January 1998	0	0	Rapid București	v.  Malta, 8 September 2020
GK	Ștefan Târnovanu	9 May 2000	0	0	FCSB	v.  Northern Ireland, 19 November 2019
GK	Cosmin Dur-Bozoancă	15 February 1998	0	0	Farul Constanța	v.  Northern Ireland, 14 October 2019
GK	Ionuț Rus	20 January 2000	0	0	Hermannstadt	v.  Denmark, 10 September 2019
DF	Virgil Ghiță ^COV	4 June 1998	5	0	Viitorul Constanța	v.  Denmark, 17 November 2020
DF	Andrei Chindriș	12 January 1999	7	0	Botoșani	v.  Malta, 13 October 2020
DF	Radu Drăgușin	3 February 2002	2	0	Juventus	v.  Malta, 13 October 2020
DF	Andrei Rațiu	20 June 1998	3	0	Villarreal	v.  Malta, 8 September 2020
DF	Vladimir Screciu	13 January 2000	1	0	Universitatea Craiova	v.  Finland, 4 September 2020
DF	Mihai Velisar ^INJ	30 August 1998	3	0	Gaz Metan Mediaș	v.  Finland, 14 November 2019
DF	Constantin Dima	21 July 1999	1	0	Desna Chernihiv	v.  Denmark, 10 September 2019
DF	Florin Borța	21 June 1999	1	0	Concordia Chiajna	v.  Bosnia and Herzegovina, 11 September 2018
DF	Tiberiu Căpușă	6 April 1998	1	0	Chindia Târgoviște	v.  England, 24 March 2018
MF	Vlad Dragomir ^WD	24 April 1999	4	0	Virtus Entella	v.  Denmark, 17 November 2020
MF	Dennis Man	26 August 1998	19	6	Parma	v.  Malta, 13 October 2020
MF	Andrei Ciobanu	18 January 1998	15	2	Viitorul Constanța	v.  Malta, 13 October 2020
MF	Tudor Băluță	27 March 1999	8	2	Dynamo Kyiv	v.  Malta, 13 October 2020
MF	Denis Drăguș	6 July 1999	6	0	Crotone	v.  Malta, 13 October 2020
MF	Ion Gheorghe	8 October 1999	0	0	Voluntari	v.  Malta, 13 October 2020
MF	Valentin Mihăilă	2 February 2000	6	5	Parma	v.  Malta, 8 September 2020
MF	Răzvan Oaidă	2 March 1998	8	0	FCSB	v.  Northern Ireland, 19 November 2019
MF	George Merloi	15 October 1999	2	0	Astra Giurgiu	v.  Northern Ireland, 19 November 2019
MF	Mihai Neicuțescu ^INJ	29 September 1998	1	0	Chindia Târgoviște	v.  Northern Ireland, 14 October 2019
MF	Florinel Coman	10 April 1998	15	4	FCSB	v.  Denmark, 10 September 2019
MF	Alex Dobre	30 August 1998	5	1	Dijon	v.  Denmark, 10 September 2019
MF	Stephan Drăghici	30 January 1998	1	0	Argeș Pitești	v.  Denmark, 25 March 2019
MF	Doru Dumitrescu ^INJ	25 May 1998	1	0	Viitorul Constanța	v.  Belgium, 15 November 2018
MF	Marco Dulca	11 May 1999	5	0	Chindia Târgoviște	v.  Bosnia and Herzegovina, 11 September 2018
FW	George Ganea	26 May 1999	7	1	Viitorul Constanța	v.  Malta, 13 October 2020
FW	Louis Munteanu	16 June 2002	0	0	Fiorentina	v.  Malta, 13 October 2020
FW	Adrian Petre	11 February 1998	12	5	Cosenza	v.  Northern Ireland, 19 November 2019
FW	Robert Moldoveanu	8 March 1999	0	0	Dinamo București	v.  Northern Ireland, 19 November 2019
FW	Andrei Sîntean	16 June 1999	1	0	Hermannstadt	v.  Denmark, 25 March 2019

Notes

• ^INJ = Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury
• ^SUS = Player is serving suspension
• Names in italics denote players that have been capped for the Senior team.

Coaching staff

As of September 2020.[2]

Role	Name
Head Coach	Adrian Mutu
Assistant Coaches	Nicolae Grigore Adrian Boingiu
Goalkeeping Coach	Eugen Anghel
Fitness Coach	Silviu Ioniță
Video Analyst	Vlad Munteanu
Physioterapists	Adrian Mîrza Andrei Bogatan Mădălin Talpalaru Valentin Șerban Dragoș Paraschiv

See also

• Romania national football team
• Romania Olympic football team

References

1. https://www.frf.ro/recomandate/u21-spre-euro-2021-ei-sunt-tricolorii-pentru-meciul-cu-danemarca-partida-decisiva-de-calificare/
2. "Mirel Rădoi şi-a completat staff-ul cu încă un antrenor secund". Digi Sport (in Romanian). 15 January 2020.

External links

• UEFA Under-21 website Contains full results archive
• The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships.
• FRF.ro