ROMANIA claimed a 2-1 victory over the Wales men’s team in Bucharest on Saturday – the first meeting between the two nations since the heart-breaking 1993 World Cup qualifier – but the scoreline only told part of the story as both teams created a host of chances.

Craig Bellamy made five changes to his starting line-up following the 1-1 draw with 2026 World Cup qualifiers Ghana in Cardiff the previous Tuesday, as Danny Ward, Kai Andrews, Nathan Broadhead, Brennan Johnson and Rhys Norrington-Davies all came into the starting XI, while Ethan Ampadu continued as captain.

Bellamy had highlighted before the game the fact that Wales had not won an away friendly since 2008, when he actually scored the only goal of the game against Denmark in Copenhagen.

For Romania, this was a first home match for the legendary Gheorghe Hagi who returned for a second spell as head coach in April.

Wales started the match on the front foot and used their pace in attack to ask questions of the home defence with Dan James and Neco Williams enjoying plenty of the ball on both sides of the pitch.

Ampadu, Johnson and Kieffer Moore all had early chances, but Romania soon settled into the match and began to dictate matters.

Vlad Dragomir gave the home crowd a lift with a deflected effort that went narrowly wide, and further chances followed for Tudor Băluță and Dragomir again as they forced a series of corners.

On 26 minutes Romania thought they had taken the lead through the impressive Louis Munteanu, but his fine finish was ruled out for offside.

Munteanu then forced Ward into making a decent save before Wales composed themselves, with Moore coming close to opening the scoring with a header that narrowly missed the target.

However, it was Romania who almost took the lead before half-time as captain Nicolae Stanciu struck his free-kick just wide of Ward’s post.

But the hosts took the lead on 52 minutes when a smart finish from substitute Florinel Coman completed an excellent team move.

Wales responded through David Brooks on 64 minutes though, just after his introduction from the bench, as he volleyed a cross from James past Hindrich.

Lewis Koumas scored his first senior goal for Wales against Ghana on Tuesday, and he looked lively as he came off the bench, forcing a save from Hindrich from a tight angle on 75 minutes.

However, Romania remained dangerous on the counter-attack and Ward had to be at his best to deny Denis Drăguş.

And the hosts scored the decisive goal with ten minutes remaining as a short corner was delivered into the Wales area and Adrian Rus was able to head past Ward.

David Matei then hit the post before Ward pulled off an impressive double save from Drăguş and Rus.

Wales continued to push for an equaliser, and it was Koumas who once again tested Hindrich before the final whistle.

Bellamy, whose side missed out to Bosnia in a World Cup semi-final qualifying penalty shoot out, said: “I do like the team, I like how we play, but we need to be better in certain areas...

"That's where we want to be and we're going to be tested now on that in Nations League A.”

Wales next take on Denmark, Norway and Portugal in League A between September and November.