Stadionul Steaua
6th June 2026
The second and final friendly of the season for Cymru, taking on Romania in Bucharest. First fixture between the two countries since that night in Cardiff in 1993, where we missed out on the ’94 World Cup by the width of a crossbar.
The great Gheorghe Hagi is now the Romanian manager for the second time and he made 11 changes to the side from the 1-1 draw with Georgia.
Embed from Getty ImagesCraig Bellamy made five changes bringing in Danny Ward, Rhys Norrington-Davies, Brennan Johnson, Nathan Broadhead and Kai Andrews for his first start, with Karl Darlow, Jay Dasilva, Dai Brooks and Sorba Thomas dropping to the bench, with Dylan Lawlor out after picking up an injury in the 1-1 draw with Ghana midweek. Bellamy hoping to get Cymru’s first away friendly win since he scored the winner against Denmark in 2008 before Kai Andrews’ second birthday!
Cymru started this match brightly with one attack after another for the first 20 minutes. Unfortunately, nothing came of the multiple attacks apart from a few corners. It was only then that the Romania team came alive, which was understandable being a completely new starting eleven.
With each attack Romania looked more and more likely to score as their passes started to meet their targets and they got more and more shots on target.
Then in the 28th minute after a long ball from the Romanian keeper, the ball was headed on from the halfway line to Louis Munteanu who ran on goal and with a stunning shot almost tore off the back of the net. Fortunately for Cymru, the linesman raised his flag for offside. Replays showed that it looked like the ball was headed on by a Cymru defender, which should have played Munteanu onside. Thankfully, there was no VAR.
Embed from Getty ImagesRomania continued in this way for the rest of the first half, with the odd Cymru attack that came to nothing. Then seven minutes into the second half Romania made the breakthrough. A great crossfield ball from Adrian Rus to Andrei Borza on the left wing, who slotted the ball to Tudor Baluta just outside the left-hand side of the box. Baluta then pulled the ball back to Florinel Coman who had gotten a couple of yards free of Joe Rodon in the box and was then able to pass the ball out of the reach of Danny Ward into the back of the net. It was coming for a long time and even the most biased member of Y Wal Goch would say that they deserved it.
On the hour mark Craig Bellamy made changes with Lewis Koumas, David Brooks and Connor Roberts coming on. It only took Brooks four minutes to make an impact. Neco Williams spread the ball out to Dan James who crossed the ball deep to the back post where Dai Brooks volleyed home from six yards. 1-1, could this finally be the away friendly win?
More changes were made by Bellamy with twenty minutes to go with Chris Mepham, Sorba Thomas and the impressive Cameron Congreve coming on.
With more attacks from Cymru, they looked the most likely to come away with the win, but as it is with football when you don’t take your chances, Romania went up the other end and scored with ten minutes left.
A short corner was taken between Andrei Borza and David Matei who then put a great cross into the middle of the box where Adrian Rus rose higher than everyone else to head home.
Embed from Getty ImagesThere were a few chances for Cymru in the dying minutes with a few chances falling to Lewis Koumas. Despite the result there were positives again: Cameron Congreve played with lots of confidence and looked good going forward, with one right-footed shot forcing a save from Ștefan Târnovanu in the Romanian goal—lots more to come from the young Swansea player. Connor Roberts also came on for the first time since the start of the season.
Not the results Bellamy and the team wanted this week, but the young players were able to get a good run-out with a bright future ahead for Koumas and Congreve.
Thanks to @StephenBaker for the words, and @colemans_dream for the photos.