Belgium will be looking to avoid ending a 94-year streak when they square off against Romania at Euro 2024 on Saturday night.
Belgium will be hoping to avoid ending a streak that has lasted their entire major-tournament history when they face Romania on Saturday night.
The Red Devils went into Euro 2024 having come through each of Domenico Tedesco‘s 14 matches in charge without suffering a single defeat.
However, albeit in controversial circumstances, Belgium went down by a 1-0 scoreline to Slovakia when they met in their Group E fixture on Monday.
Ivan Schranz‘s early goal proved to be the difference, putting Tedesco and his players under pressure to deliver a response in Cologne.
Although the focus will be fully on the task in hand, there is an historic statistic that could get broken if Romania build on their outstanding win over Ukraine.
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Belgium defending 94-year streak
As a result of losing out to Slovakia, Belgium are at risk of losing their opening two matches at a major tournament for just the second time in their history.
The only previous occurrence came at the very first World up in 1930 when they lost to United States and Paraguay respectively without scoring a goal.
That means that going two matches without scoring is also a possibility on Saturday, something which occurred in their final two matches of the 2022 World Cup.
Incredibly, given their options in the final third, Belgium have scored just once in their last four major tournament encounters, that being Michy Batshuayi‘s pivotal strike in a 1-0 triumph over Canada.
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What is the head-to-head record between Belgium and Romania?
In 12 encounters between the two nations, both teams have recorded five wins apiece, none of which have been held at a major tournament.
The only time that they have met in a qualifying campaign was ahead of the 1994 World Cup, while their last friendly came all the way back in 2012.
Romania have not recorded back-to-back wins at the start of a major competition since the 1998 World Cup, with Anghel Iordanescu – the father of current boss Edward Iordanescu – in charge.
Although Romania have been eliminated in the groups in four of their five appearances at a European Championship, a point against Belgium or Slovakia would put them in a strong position to qualify for the last 16.
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