Article by Daniel Grigore – Published Monday, November 17, 2025 9:28 p.m. / Updated Monday, November 17, 2025 9:55 p.m.
Former international Basarab Panduru, 55, wonders if a weaker path for the Romanian national team in this World Championship qualifying group would have been possible.
Regardless of what results will be recorded on Tuesday, in the last stage of the preliminary group stage, Romania will end the series in 3rd place out of 5, below Austria and Bosnia, above Cyprus and San Marino.
It is a total failure for the representative coached by Mircea Lucescu, especially if we refer to the expectations that existed at the time when UEFA established the groups.
In these conditions, Basarab Panduru seems to have positioned himself against the selector Mircea Lucescu, asking rhetorically if it could have been worse.
Panduru did not care for Mircea Lucescu: “Could someone have done LESS in this group? Atomic problem!”
“In this group, would anyone have done less? I've heard the question of whether anyone would have done more. But would anyone have done less?
Yes?! Well, let it go! Leave her alone! When we were at the bottom, in last place in the Nations League, then came the qualifying group (No to Euro 2024) and we qualified. If you come and tell me that everything that has happened in football in the last 10 years leads us to be under Cyprus tomorrow, it means that we have a big problem, that something is wrong. Not a big problem, but atomic! Out of the way!
How to be under Cyprus? Why would we be? You can not! Yes, we were going to lose there, but after we were 2-0. If we are under Cyprus or one day we get there, I think it's a big problem“, commented Panduru to PrimaSport, in the context of discussions about the continuity of Mircea Lucescu on the national team bench.
Later, when the images of Mircea Lucescu getting angry again at the press conference when asked about his post, Panduru compared the veteran's reaction to that of a rookie.
“I understood that age is not the problem. You feel that when you are 30, 40 or 80 years old you act differently. No, at 80 you act the same way. When things are not going well, when the questions are awkward and because you've been asked these awkward questions, you react like a newbie.
That's how a beginner is, in the first year of coaching: all the time nervous, all the time he has the impression that something is up. This is the coach. When he loses, he has a problem with everyone”, believes Panduru.
