ROMANIA - SPAIN
Spain's record vs Romania: 5 wins, 5 draws and 5 defeats
Spain will be looking to gain their first ever victory on Romanian soil tonight. The stats from previous meetings couldn't be any closer.
Balance. Spain and Romania have met on 15 occasions, and are level pegging in terms of stats: five fives for both teams and five games which have ended level. The two countries have met three times in friendly games with Spain not winning any of them - 0-2 in Cáceres in 1991, 1-1 in Palma in 1997 and 0-1 in Cádiz in 2006.
Before and after. Precisely that meeting with Romania in Cádiz (Marica, the scorer in the 0-1 defeat) was a watershed moment for Spain's senior side. After that game, La Roja went 35 games without suffering a single defeat (32 wins and three draws) equalling the world record unbeaten run set by Brazil in 1996. The run finally came to an end in 2009 with the defeat to USA in the Confederations Cup, just after Spain had set a new world record for consecutive victories (15).
Meetings in Romania. Spain have played on Romanian soil five times (always in the qualifying rounds for the Euros or World Cup) and have never won over there. They lost 3-1 at the Nacional stadium in Bucharest in November 1962, drew 2-2 in their next visit in November 1975, lost 1-0 with Benito turning the ball into his own net at the Steaua Stadium in 1977, drew 2-2 in Craiova in April 1979 and lost 3-1 in their last visit to the capital in April1987. Romania is the country where Spain have played the most times without ever winning, ahead of their visits to Sweden (4) and Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, the former East Germany, USSR and Uruguay (1).
Romania on the roll. Romania haven't lost a game since 4 June 2014, when they were beaten 2-1 by Algeria. Their current run (13 games without defeat) is the third best registry of any national team, behind Mexico (16) and South Korea (14).
Unlucky Cluj. Romania have only played in Cluj twice but suffered heavy defeats both times - losing 0-6 to Czechoslovakia in 1923 and 0-3 to Lithuania in 2008.
Debutants. Sergio Rico and Sergi Roberto could both make their debuts for Spain tonight. The former could become the third Sevilla keeper to be capped (after Eizaguirre and Paco Buyo); the latter meanwhile could become the ninth player from the Tarragona region and the first from Reus to play at full international level, following in the footsteps of Pedrol, Sadurní, Ernesto Domínguez, Calderé, Vizcaíno, Bartra, Casilla and Aleix Vidal.