It is arguably the biggest match in Northern Ireland's recent history when they host Romania in a crunch Euro 2016 qualifier this Saturday.

Michael O'Neill's side welcome the Romanians to Windsor Park knowing that a win will take them top of Group F and within touching distance of the finals in France next summer.

Northern Ireland

The Green and White army have never reached the finals of the European Championship before, but this is their best ever chance following four wins in five games at the halfway mark of qualifying.

O'Neill's men are just a point behind Romania at the top of the table, four clear of Hungary in third and eight ahead of fourth-placed Finland.

With the number of teams at next year's finals having increased from 16 to 24, every side that finishes second will qualify for the tournament, while those in third can also reach France if they come through a playoff. The best third-placed team secures automatic qualification along with the 18 first and second-placed teams.

The only defeat Norn Iron have suffered so far was at the hands of Romania in November, but they were far from outplayed, going down 2-0 to a pair of late goals from Paul Papp.

Apart from that, it has been near-perfect, with just two goals conceded and eight goals scored in the wins over Hungary, the Faroe Islands, Greece and Finland.

If O'Neill's men do manage to qualify for the finals, it will be the first time in 30 years that they have reached a major tournament after going out at the group stage of the 1986 World Cup.

They come into the match after a low-key 1-1 draw in a friendly with Qatar in Crewe last month.

Recent Euro 2016 qualifying form: WWWLW
Recent form (all competitions): WWLLWD

Romania

While Northern Ireland are hoping to end a three-decade wait for tournament football, Romania are also aiming to end a mini-drought having not appeared in a major championship since 2008.

The Tricolours haven't been at a World Cup since 1998 and missed out on the last European Championship in Poland and Ukraine four years ago.

Anghel Iordanescu has put them in an excellent position to qualify for France 2016, though. They are unbeaten in five games, dropping points in just one game when Hungary scored a late equaliser in October.

They are unbeaten in nine games in all competitions and have only suffered one defeat - a 2-1 friendly loss to Algeria - in their last 13 matches.

Northern Ireland dropped a couple of places to 44th in the latest FIFA rankings, but Romania remained in 12th place, just two places behind reigning European champions Spain and ahead of the likes of Italy (13th) and England (15th).

Iordanescu's men haven't played a friendly in the build-up, with their last match a less-than-impressive 1-0 win over minnows the Faroes.

Recent Euro 2016 qualifying form: WDWWW
Recent form (all competitions): WWDWWW

Team News

O'Neill is likely to recall Kyle Lafferty, who missed the friendly with Qatar but has five goals in five games so far in qualifying - only England's Danny Welbeck has more.

Elsewhere, Jonny Evans, Steven Davis and Jamie Ward could start, while Stuart Dallas will hope to keep his place after scoring his first international goal against Qatar.

If Davies does play he could come up against Southampton teammate Florin Gardos, but the latter has only made one substitute appearance so far in qualifying.

Other Premier League players in the visitors' squad are Sunderland keeper Costel Pantilimon and Vlad Chiriches of Tottenham Hotspur.

Northern Ireland possible starting lineup:
Carroll; D Lafferty, Evans, Baird, Hughes; McNair; Dallas, Davis, Norwood, Brunt; Lafferty

Romania possible starting lineup:
Pantilimon; Papp, Chiriches, Grigor, Rat; Popa, Pintilii, Sanmartean, Maxim; Rusescu, Keseru

Head To Head

The November reverse in Bucharest when Romania claimed a 2-0 win thanks to a quickfire second-half brace from Paul Papp was the two sides' first meeting for eight years.

Before that, Romania also won 2-0 in a friendly in May 2006, which was their first encounter for 21 years.

Northern Ireland won the two other meetings in qualifying for the 1986 World Cup 3-2 and 1-0.

We say: Northern Ireland 2-1 Romania

The Romanians could be a little rusty having not played a game in almost three months and the hosts will hope to take advantage of that in front of what is sure to be a noisy crowd in Belfast. Plenty have doubted Northern Ireland throughout this impressive campaign, but there's no reason why they can't make it five wins in six here.