Italy U21 vs Romania U21 Preview & Prediction | 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship | Group Stage
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One of the giants of European international football, Italy, get their 2025 UEFA U21 EURO campaign underway with a clash with Romania in Group A on the opening day.
Kick-off date/time:
How to watch on TV: UK – Channel 4 / US – Not televised
How to watch online: UK – Channel 4 / US – Disney+ & ViX
Key stats
- This is the first U21 EURO final tournament meeting between these teams. They have met four times in qualifying with Italy winning three times and one match ending in a draw.
- Italy have won five U21 EURO titles – a record they share with Spain.
- Italy have missed the U21 finals only twice in the history of the tournament (1998 and 2011)
- Italy were unbeaten in qualifying for U21 EURO 2025 (W6 D4).
- Italy have exited at the group stage in two of the last three editions of U21 EURO.
- Italy have won only two of their last seven U21 EURO final tournament matches (D2 L3).
- Semi-finalists in 2019, this is Romania’s fourth successive U21 EURO FT participation
- Romania have won only one of their last seven U21 EURO group matches (D4 L2).
- Romania did not win a match in the group stage at the 2023 finals (D1 L2). They were unbeaten in the group stage in 2019 (W2 D1) and 2021 (W1 D2).
- Romania have not scored a goal in their last four U21 EURO group matches.
Italy U21 vs Romania U21 prediction
The Italians have some really exciting players in their squad for this tournament, captained by Lorenzo Pirola, with the likes of Michael Kayode, Cher Ndour, Giovanni Fabbian, Willy Gnonto and Luca Koleosho. It isn’t necessarily a stellar Italy U21 squad but they remain strong as they head to Slovakia.
Semi-finalists in 2019, Romania have improved their youth development methods in recent years and will be keen to attack this tournament. The Romanians most recently suffered a 2-0 loss to the Netherlands U21 side in March, a few days after they had beaten Portugal in Famalicao by a goal to nil.
Romania will believe they can be stubborn in this tournament and that may well frustrate a slightly limited Italy side, but the Italians remain favourites for this one in Trnava.
Italy U21 vs Romania U21 tip: Italy to win & under 3.5 goals
