Article by Alexandru Tomuțiu – Published Thursday, October 16, 2025, 8:25 p.m. / Updated Thursday, October 16, 2025, 8:36 p.m.
Edward Iordănescu continued the exchange of lines from a distance with Mircea Lucescu. The two have “stabbed” each other several times since Il Luce took over the Romanian national team, he being the one who set the tone.
After the match with Austria, Mircea Lucescu sent another jab at the former coach, saying that he led a national team based on emotion. Iordănescu was disturbed by Lucescu's statements and contradicted him.
Edward Iordănescu, message for Mircea Lucescu: “I left a competitive team”
“It was a discussion that I admit bothered me. It was discussed that a national team was built based on emotion. You can't win two groups, a qualifying one against Switzerland, a team with a lot of quality. And we won it by 5 points with the best defense and the third best in qualifying. That meant work. It's an affront to the team, to everyone involved, to everyone who worked around the team, to me.
The psychological, mental side was also very important, but a lot of work was done, the team had a game organization, discipline. There were hundreds of hours of study, analysis, and these things led us to a European. But I know that when I left I left a competitive team, a team that had a clear philosophy of play, with an identity.
I did say that there are still things to improve, to correct, but those things were to be done in later stages. It's normal to have a relationship with those from the Federation, I'm in a friendship relationship. I am the coach who qualified Romania for a final tournament after 9 years. We performed, we had the best result in the history of Romania at the final tournaments (no. 3-0 against Ukraine).
I think any coach wants his team to dominate the game in all parameters, but you have to be able to. It has been shown that it is still not possible. I wanted it too, but the qualification was prioritized. The credit went to the players, then we come after them.
I don't think anyone can comment that I didn't play spectacularly, they were objective. It would have been great if he could have played even more spectacularly. I know that the team that went to the Euros was a balanced team, it had moments when it dominated the game. I wanted defensive security, so that the opponent no longer had 4 important opportunities.
Everyone was involved, in the service of the team. We had players who ran at a much faster pace than they did in the club team. Even they were laughing, saying that they didn't expect to come 30 meters from the goal and score slips. There were players who, after the Euro, said in front of everyone, “it's a mystery, why didn't I bother you so much with the rules and discipline, but without them we couldn't have gotten here”, said Edward Iordănescu, at Digi Sport Special.
