West Ham United has a number of historic links with Romania.
Situated at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europa, Romania is home to nearly 20 million inhabitants and has a long tradition of football.
Three of Romania’s best players of all-time have represented the Hammers, but sadly none of them produced their best football in Claret and Blue.
The first, in 1996, was attacking midfielder Ilie Dumitrescu.
A product of tonight’s visitors FCSB – then known as Steaua Bucharest – in the Romanian capital, Dumitrescu scored at a prolific rate and won the domestic league and cup on multiple occasions.
He and Steaua also reached the 1989 European Cup final, where they were beaten by AC Milan.
In 1994, his outstanding performances at the FIFA World Cup finals in the United States saw Tottenham Hotspur spend £2.6million to bring him to London, alongside national team colleague Gheorghe Popescu.
Things did not work out at White Hart Lane though and, following a loan spell in Spain with Sevilla, he joined West Ham in February 1996.
Dumitrescu helped the Hammers to wins over Middlesbrough, Manchester City and Southampton in his first four appearances, but his West Ham career lasted just 13 games before he departed for Mexican club America in December of the same year.
A second of Romania’s USA ’94 star, striker Florin Răducioiu, won the Romanian League and Cup with Dinamo Bucharest before having spells in Italy with AC Milan and Spain with Espanyol before he arrived at the Boleyn Ground from Spanish side Espanyol to join Dumitrescu in July 1996.
Răducioiu found the net three times in 12 appearances, including a superb finish in a 2-2 Premier League draw with Manchester United in December 1996, but he fell out of favour with Redknapp and returned to Espanyol in January 1997.
The third and final Romanian to play for West Ham was long-time national team captain Răzvan Raț.
Raț played for Rapid Bucharest before enjoying ten trophy-filled seasons with Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk between 2003-13.
At the age of 32, he joined the Irons in May 2013, but the left-back found regular starts hard to come by under Sam Allardyce in his single season in east London. He departed for Spanish club Rayo Vallecano in February 2014.
The first came during the 1980/81 European Cup Winners’ Cup when, after defeating Castilla of Spain in the first round, John Lyall’s side faced Poli Timișoara over two legs.
The first was held at the Boleyn Ground on 22 October 1980 and ended in a comprehensive 4-0 win, with Ray Stewart’s penalty and goals from Billy Bonds, Paul Goddard and David Cross rendering the second leg a formality. As it was, Timișoara won it, 1-0, but West Ham went through comfortably on aggregate.
Just under 20 years later, the Hammers won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in August 1999 to qualify for the UEFA Cup.
Harry Redknapp’s Hammers beat Osijek of Croatia to set up a two-legged second round tie with Steaua Bucharest.
Laurenţiu Roșu and Sabin Ilie scored in front of a 24,514 crowd at the Stadionul Steaua to leave the Irons with it all to do at the Boleyn Ground, and the task proved too much as a goalless draw in east London sent the Romanian Cup winners through at the Irons’ expense.
West Ham have travelled to Romania again twice in recent seasons, although Hammers supporters will want to forget both trips, on the pitch at least.
The Irons reached the UEFA Europa League in 2015/16 via their Fair Play record and, after defeating Lusitans of Andorra and Birkirkara of Malta, faced Astra Giurgiu in the third qualifying round.
Goals from Enner Valencia and Mauro Zárate appeared to put West Ham in control at the Boleyn Ground before James Collins’ red card changed the course of the tie.
Fernando Boldrin and an Angelo Ogbonna own-goal meant the teams travelled to southern Romania level at 2-2. There, Manuel Lanzini marked his debut with a goal inside three minutes, but midfielder Constantin Budescu netted twice in five first-half minutes to secure a 4-3 aggregate win.
After qualifying for the Europa League qualifying rounds again via a seventh-place finish in the Premier League, the Irons defeated Domzale of Slovenia to set up a play-off round meeting with Astra, who had won the Romanian Liga I title.
The first leg was played in Giurgiu and again West Ham took the lead, this time through Mark Noble’s penalty, before Denis Alibec levelled with a powerful finish.
The Hammers dominated the second leg at London Stadium, but could not score, and were knocked out by Filipe Teixeira’s goal on the stroke of half-time.
Perhaps surprisingly, West Ham have never met Romanian opposition for a friendly match.
