Romania at the FIFA World Cup

This is a record of Romania's results at the FIFA World Cup. Romania participated at 7 of 21 final tournaments of the World Cup. They were one of the few European participants at the inaugural edition held in Uruguay in 1930. The best performance of the team was in 1994 in United States, when Romania reached quarter-finals after defeating Diego Maradona's Argentina. They eventually lost to Sweden after a penalty shoot-out. The last time Romania qualified was in 1998 in France, when they reached the round of 16, losing to Croatia. The best scorer for Romania at the World Cup is Florin Răducioiu, with 4 goals, all scored in 1994.

Record at the FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA
1930	Group stage	8th	2	1	0	1	3	5
1934	Round of 16	12th	1	0	0	1	1	2
1938		9th	2	0	1	1	4	5
1950	Did not enter
1954	Did not qualify
1958
1962	Withdrew
1966	Did not qualify
1970	Group stage	11th	3	1	0	2	4	5
1974	Did not qualify
1978
1982
1986
1990	Round of 16	12th	4	1	2	1	4	3
1994	Quarter-finals	6th	5	3	1	1	10	9
1998	Round of 16	11th	4	2	1	1	4	3
2002	Did not qualify
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022	To be determined
2026
Total	Quarter-finals	7/21	21	8	5	8	30	32

*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks

Romania's World Cup record
First match	Romania 3–1 Peru (14 July 1930; Montevideo, Uruguay)
Biggest win	Romania 3–1 Peru (14 July 1930; Montevideo, Uruguay) Romania 2–0 Soviet Union (9 June 1990; Bari, Italy) Romania 3–1 Colombia (18 June 1994; Pasadena, United States)
Biggest defeat	Uruguay 4–0 Romania (21 July 1930; Montevideo, Uruguay)
Best result	Quarter-finals in 1994
Worst result	Group stage in 1930, 1934, 1938 and 1970

By Match

World Cup	Round	Opponent	Score	Result	Venue	Scorers
1930	Group stage	Peru	3–1	W	Montevideo	A. Deșu, C. Stanciu, N. Kovács
		Uruguay	0–4	L	Montevideo	—
1934	Round of 16	Czechoslovakia	1–2	L	Trieste	Ș. Dobay
1938	Round of 16	Cuba	3–3	D	Toulouse	S. Bindea, I. Baratky, Ș. Dobay
		Cuba	1–2	L	Toulouse	Ș. Dobay
1970	Group stage	England	0–1	L	Guadalajara	—
		Czechoslovakia	2–1	W	Guadalajara	A. Neagu, F. Dumitrache
		Brazil	2–3	L	Guadalajara	F. Dumitrache, E. Dembrovschi
1990	Group stage	Soviet Union	2–0	W	Bari	M. Lăcătuș (2)
		Cameroon	1–2	L	Bari	G. Balint
		Argentina	1–1	D	Naples	G. Balint
	Round of 16	Republic of Ireland	0–0 (a.e.t.) (4–5 pen.)	D	Genoa	—
1994	Group stage	Colombia	3–1	W	Pasadena	F. Răducioiu (2), G. Hagi
		Switzerland	1–4	L	Pontiac	G. Hagi
		United States	1–0	W	Pasadena	D. Petrescu
	Round of 16	Argentina	3–2	W	Pasadena	I. Dumitrescu (2), G. Hagi
	Quarter-finals	Sweden	2–2 (a.e.t.) (4–5 pen.)	D	Stanford	F. Răducioiu (2)
1998	Group stage	Colombia	1–0	W	Lyon	A. Ilie
		England	2–1	W	Toulouse	V. Moldovan, D. Petrescu
		Tunisia	1–1	D	Saint-Denis	V. Moldovan
	Round of 16	Croatia	0–1	L	Bordeaux	—

Record by Opponent

FIFA World Cup matches (by team)
Opponent	Wins	Draws	Losses	Total	Goals Scored	Goals Conceded
Argentina	1	1	0	2	4	3
Brazil	0	0	1	1	2	3
Cameroon	0	0	1	1	1	2
Colombia	2	0	0	2	4	1
Croatia	0	0	1	1	0	1
Cuba	0	1	1	2	4	5
Czechoslovakia	1	0	1	2	3	3
England	1	0	1	2	2	2
Peru	1	0	0	1	3	1
Republic of Ireland	0	1	0	1	0	0
Soviet Union	1	0	0	1	2	0
Sweden	0	1	0	1	2	2
Switzerland	0	0	1	1	1	4
Tunisia	0	1	0	1	1	1
United States	1	0	0	1	1	0
Uruguay	0	0	1	1	0	4

Record players

Gheorghe Popescu and Gheorghe Hagi, Romania's top World Cup players, were team-mates at Steaua, Barcelona and Galatasaray. They became brother-in-laws when Hagi married Popescu's sister.

No.	Name	Matches	World Cups
1	Gheorghe Popescu	13	1990, 1994 and 1998
2	Gheorghe Hagi	12	1990, 1994 and 1998
3	Dorinel Munteanu	9	1994 and 1998
	Dan Petrescu	9	1994 and 1998
5	Ilie Dumitrescu	8	1990, 1994 and 1998
	Ionuţ Lupescu	8	1990 and 1994
7	Florin Răducioiu	7	1990 and 1994
8	Constantin Gâlcă	6	1994 and 1998
	Bogdan Stelea	6	1994 and 1998
10	Marius Lăcătuș	5	1990 and 1998
	Miodrag Belodedici	5	1994
	Daniel Prodan	5	1994

Top goalscorers

No.	Name	Goals	World Cups
1	Florin Răducioiu	4	1994
2	Ștefan Dobay	3	1934 (1) and 1938 (2)
	Gheorghe Hagi	3	1994
4	Florea Dumitrache	2	1970
	Gavril Balint	2	1990
	Marius Lăcătuș	2	1990
	Ilie Dumitrescu	2	1994
	Dan Petrescu	2	1994 and 1998
	Viorel Moldovan	2	1998
10	Eight players	1

See also