Article by Adrian Duţă – Published Sunday, November 16, 2025, 00:35 / Updated Sunday, November 16, 2025 02:40
Bosnia – Romania 3-1. Mircea Lucescu, the selector of the “tricolors”, analyzed the failure in Zenica, from the preliminaries of the World Championship. The national team mathematically missed the first two positions.
Lucescu was extremely acidic in interviews. He crushed referee Michael Oliver and believes that Drăguș should not have been eliminated. He also stated that Bosnia should have been a man down after Tabakovic elbowed Marius Marin in the ear.
Also, Mircea Lucescu stated that the Bosnian who was kicked in the head by Drăguș was faking it. Then, he harshly criticized the conditions at Zenica, but also the treatment of the hosts. Bosnia fans chanted “Gypsies, Gypsies!” to the Romanians from the beginning to the end of the match.
Asked if he remains on the bench at the dam, he refused to answer and left the interview area.
Mircea Lucescu's statements, after Bosnia – Romania
“Are we drawing conclusions now? No way. We lost because of the behavior in the second half, because of the lack of concentration in the first, we could have scored 4 goals. The referee left everything to them. Marius is now being stitched up. He didn't go to see. Drăguș was facing the ball, he raised his leg, the opponent came from behind.
The opponent suffered nothing, had nothing. He pretended. The referee didn't think twice. He took out the red card. Unplayable in these conditions. From that moment on, I surrendered all duels. With referees they won all the duels. We didn't do what we did in the first half.
We were afraid, we played with long balls, they came in with aggression and a physical force disproportionate to us. I think it's not red. He had to put the body. He raised his leg, but the opponent came back. He didn't touch it, it wasn't a kick, He fell there, he faked it and the referee showed red.
And we showed a little childishness in the interpretation of some moments. And at the first goal, when we had to kick the ball out, Mihăilă was on the ground. He had to kick the ball out.
It's a shame what the Bosnians did, now I see what kind of stadium we played in. In that corridor, the players had nowhere to warm up. If we are as they cried, how are they? It is impossible at this level to play in these inhumane conditions.
Don't ask me about the dam, I won't answer you,” said Lucescu, on Prima TV.
PHOTO GALLERY. The images of hostility! How the Romanians were received in Zenica
Ranking in the Romania group
