Hungary travel to Bucharest to play Romania on matchday two of the Euro 2016 qualifying. Both sides had mixed fortunes on matchday one, with Romania beating Greece in Athens whilst Hungary had a shock home defeat at the hands of Northern Ireland.

Neither of these sides have had a great history in competing at tournament's. In the Euro's, which date back to 1960, these sides have made a combined six appearances at the tournament proper. With Group F having no "massive" team, both Romania and Hungary will see this qualifying campaign as a great chance to join Europe's elite at Euro 2016 in France. It is worth noting that in Hungary's two appearances at the tournament proper, they reached the semi final's both times, losing both but coming third place (1964) and fourth place (1972). Both these sides met in World Cup 2014 qualifying, Romania won their home tie 3-0, before both sides drew in Budapest.

Romania's squad contains seven players from Steaua Bucharest, with other big names such as Tottenham's Vlad Chiriches included.  They will be without matchday one match-winner Ciprian Marica, who got sent off after scoring the only goal against against Greece. Lucian Sanmartean, a midfielder from Steaua who has scored one in his two league appearances for his club side is being widely raved about by the Romania fans.

Hungary, who were massively disappointing against Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland's first away win since 2010!) and looked over reliant on Dinamo Moscow midfielder Balázs Dzsudzsák, who was having a poor game by his standards. Pál Dárdai will be hoping his captain will be on tune this time around, but will also be hoping from a larger contribution from other players such as Gergely Rudolf and Nemanja Nikolic. The opening day defeat has left them travelling to Romania really needing a win, which isn't an ideal situation to be in.

With both of these sides facing away games next Tuesday (Romania travel to Finland while Hungary are away to Faroe Islands) and the fact Northern Ireland could be sitting with six points out of six with an expected win at home to the Faroese on Saturday, a win is vital in this one for both sides.

Josh Smith - @josh_spurs

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About the author
Josh  Smith
Radio co host. Football coach for Ajax at their Northern Irish Academy (Balon AOA). Will probably find me writing on most sites. Email - [email protected]