Romania 1-1 Northern Ireland: Debutant Jamie Reid scores as youthful NI draw in Bucharest
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Jamie Reid opened his Northern Ireland account just seven minutes into his debut to spark wild celebrations in the away end
A youthful Northern Ireland produced a strong performance in a 1-1 friendly draw with Euro 2024-bound Romania in Bucharest.
Jamie Reid, who plays for League One Stevenage, gave them a shock seventh-minute lead on his international debut.
Parma's Dennis Man equalised midway through the first half for the hosts.
The draw means Romania are now unbeaten in 12 internationals, while Northern Ireland backed up November's win over Denmark with a solid display.
Manager Michael O'Neill had spoken about his belief in a young squad as he builds for the future following a poor Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.
That was reflected in his starting team for the friendly, which had an average age of just 23.5 and the oldest player was 29-year-old debutant Reid.
But the Stevenage striker made an immediate impact with the opener.
Conor Bradley, so impressive for club Liverpool, broke down the right to feed Shea Charles and the Southampton midfielder squared the ball across the edge of the box for Reid to calmly finish.
Dennis Man equalised for Romania midway through the first half
Northern Ireland looked dangerous on the counter attack and Florinel Coman made a strong tackle to deny Bradley as he broke into the area. The full-back then almost fed the stretching Isaac Price, who just couldn't get to the ball before Romania goalkeeper Florin Nita.
The 40,000-strong home crowd got the reward for their patience when Man levelled in the 24th minute.
His powerful strike from inside the area went through the gloves of goalkeeper Conor Hazard, who will feel he should have done better to keep the effort out.
A long ball forward was well controlled by Man, and the midfielder cut inside before beating the Plymouth keeper.
Man almost replicated that effort as he worked his way into the area and let fly again, but his strike hit team-mate George Puscas and the visitors cleared.
Romania - who will face Belgium, Slovakia and either Ukraine or Iceland at the Euros - almost took the lead in first-half injury-time.
Vasile Mogos found space in the area but Brodie Spencer got a crucial touch on the ball as the full-back looked to shoot.
Romania dominated possession in the second half but struggled to break down the visitors.
Razvan Marin fired straight at half-time substitute keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell and home captain Nicolae Stanciu volleyed over from a well-worked corner.
NI captain Paddy McNair and Spencer provided crucial interventions and while Northern Ireland looked dangerous on the counter-attack, they were restricted in attack to a long-range effort from McNair and blocked effort from Price.
After a strong showing in Romania, O'Neill's side travel to Glasgow to face Scotland, who lost 4-0 to the Netherlands, on Tuesday in the second of March's friendlies.