A quarter of a century on from when he last took charge of his nation, Hagi had Ionut Radu to thank for preventing an immediate disaster, as the goalkeeper batted away a curling effort from Sebastian Nanasi and blocked an Alexander Isak effort from a tight angle inside the first minute.
The visitors soon found their feet, though, and came close to taking the lead when an Andrei Ratiu cross was met by a glancing header from Louis Munteanu, which went just wide. However, they were powerless to stop the Swedish opener, which came when a perfectly-weighted through ball from Yasin Ayari was met with a first-time hit from Isak, who fired past Radu for his first goal in four international outings.
But Sweden were without a competitive clean sheet since the previous UNL campaign, and that continued just before the half-hour mark, as Ratiu fired the ball into the feet of Dennis Man, who shrugged off his marker as he brought it under control and cushioned a half-volley past Viktor Johansson.
Ratiu went looking for another goal himself with a powerful strike that went inches over the crossbar, only for the Blagult to restore their lead on 43’, when Lucas Bergvall tried a similar effort which Radu could only palm to Viktor Gyokeres, who turned in the rebound to ensure he too ended a wait of three internationals to score.
Romania’s haul of 18 goals in the previous UNL cycle was bettered only by Sweden’s 19, and Graham Potter’s side thought they had opened a two-goal cushion 10 minutes after half-time. Elliot Stroud fired into the top corner from 20 yards, only for the Hull City man to be denied a first international goal by VAR, due to a handball in the build-up.
That came minutes after Stroud had sent a low effort a whisker wide following a mazy run, before the home side’s momentum was curtailed on the hour mark, when Emil Holm suffered a nasty injury that forced him to be stretchered off.
Sweden lacked cutting edge in the final third as they looked to kill the game off late on, and that nearly came back to haunt them when Vladimir Screciu unleashed a testing drive which Johansson was equal to. From there, Sweden were able to close out a fourth win from their last five matches on home soil, while it’s now seven matches on their travels with neither a victory nor a clean sheet for Romania.