Mircea Lucescu announces the counterattack on the “Drăguș file”: “Ronaldo's precedent!” + Gives the answer to Nicolae Stanciu: “He had to suffer”
Article by Justin Gafiuc – Published Wednesday, December 24, 2025 6:46 p.m. / Updated Wednesday, December 24, 2025 6:46 p.m.
Mircea Lucescu spoke to GSP about the topics of the end of the year in terms of the national team: the suspension of Drăguș for two stages after the elimination from Bosnia and the acid reply coming from Stanciu towards the criticism addressed by the selector at the end of the draw with Cyprus, 2-2, in the missed end of the WC campaign
Mircea Lucescu tries to spend the Holidays in peace, but keeps his eyes, ears and mind to all the events related to the national team.
And the last two topics on the agenda came from Denis Drăguș and Nicolae Stanciu.
The former found out about his suspension after the red card received in Bosnia, and the captain of the “tricolors” launched from Genoa an abrasive speech to the selector, following the public criticism formulated by Lucescu towards him at the end of the preliminaries for the World Cup. Now, Il Luce has agreed to intervene on both subjects in a dialogue with Gazeta.
Mircea Lucescu: “We appeal for the suspension of Drăguș”
Denis Drăguș, the image of disappointment after the red card from Zenica / Photo: Primasport capture
“For Drăguș, it is clear that there is only one step we will take. It is about formulating an Appeal, so that we can try to get his suspension reduced.
There are enough precedents, including Ronaldo, where the penalty for removal was a single stage. That's what we want to get for Denis as well, so that we have him available with Turkey”, the selector pointed out.
In Zenica, Drăguș saw the red card only two minutes after being introduced on the field, in the second half, when a karate attack forced the “central” of the party to send him to the locker room earlier.
Cristiano Ronaldo tackled O'Shea in Ireland v Portugal and was sent off, but FIFA was lenient with the Lusitanian Photo: Imago Images
Also in the same phase of the preliminaries, i.e. in the penultimate match of the campaign, Cristiano Ronaldo was also eliminated for elbowing an opponent in the mouth, in Ireland – Portugal 2-0.
However, the FIFA Disciplinary Commission interpreted the regulation with a legislative “pirouette” in the sense that it applied three stages of suspension to the Lusitanian, but only an enforceable one. And the other two remain applicable later, within a grace period of one year, if Ronaldo steps on the bulb again.
It was the solution by which the world forum allowed the Portuguese star to be able to perform in the first matches of the World Cup in the summer of 2026. Based on this reasoning, FRF will force to get Drăguș a similar sanction scenario.
Lucescu gives the reply to Nicolae Stanciu: “Every player has the right to express his opinion”
Relations between Mircea Lucescu and Nicolae Stanciu cooled at the end of the missed campaign for the World Cup Photo: Imago
Mircea Lucescu then commented for GSP the statements provided by Nicolae Stanciu, in an interview given to Gazeta in Genoa.
In a response to a reply from the selector (“Saudi Arabia put Stanciu behind a lot, his performance decreased”), the Romanian captain stated that “after the match in Cyprus, neither me nor Răzvan Marin, the coach said anything to us in the dressing room or afterwards that we were to blame. But I always assumed my failures and took the blame on myself when the team lost, because that seems normal to me.
As for the rest, I went to Euro 2024 from Arabia, I also came from Arabia to the League of Nations, when we won six matches out of six and then there were no more problems, so I don't see why Arabia would have pulled me back. I don't think this thing holds.”
In reply, Lucescu pointed out: “Every player has the right to express his opinion and that's how it should be. As for Stanciu, I expect him to come back, play for the club and thus help the national team.
He was injured, he was out for quite a long time, now we will see when he starts to develop again. The reality is that the footballers who changed the club suffered in the first part spent after the transfer, and their performance was not what was expected”.
And he concluded: “I appreciate my players, it was a weaker period and their performance also depends on everything that happens around them. The only thing I wished for them after the victory in San Marino, apart from health, was to play as much as possible at the clubs.”
