“She's out of title contention”

Ioanițoaia updated: “Craiova has done its duty, Dinamo is going downhill”

“Craiova defended very well, on two lines, intelligently, without panicking. Bancu's elimination changed Coelho's strategy, logically; I saw that he first gave up on Baiaram, he also gave up on Etim, practically he didn't have, after the 65-70th minute, any kind of offensive intention, despite the fact that the biggest chance of the second half was also Craiova's, the fairytale miss of Teles, from the minute 89.

Craiova defended well and did its job like the world, under the conditions in which Bancu left it in 10. It's surprising how a player with Bancu's experience and value, a 33-year-old footballer with 49 caps in the national team, in the center of the field, in a phase that presented no danger, made such a foul… But at least he had the fair play to admit and apologize afterwards. Other players would have said that the referee exaggerated, that a straight red is not given… It was an indisputable red, which it is difficult for Bancu to justify.

Dinamo has no attack, no teeth. Kopic is a coach in whom I trust and who has demonstrated, but what to do if you try to match Caragea, Tarbă, Mazilu, none of them convincing in any way?!

And this is how Dinamo loses its 5th game in a row. She is a bit out of the fight for the title, maybe even for the podium, because she has a lot of competition. He doesn't have a lot, he continues to play without a professional tip, while waiting for Pușcaș, he also plays with the Spaniard Soro. In some matches they tie, in others, when they meet a serious opponent like Universitatea Craiova, they fail to achieve their goal.

Dynamo is going downhill, starting to break away from the peloton, with these failures that come one after the other. He has nothing to say, who to blame, not even the referee. It's a difficult moment for Dinamo, which I hope to overcome, for the dynamism of the play-off. She loses match after match, but hard, by a whisker. Yesterday he clearly dominated the entire second half, but he did not know how to break a very well organized defense.

We had the feeling that Craiova University is the team of an unleashed attack, with 4 very good attacking players. If it's not Baiaram and Etim, it's Nsimba and Al Hamlawi. But the coach of Olten, Coelho, proves that they can organize themselves, even in the conditions where the most experienced player in the team, captain Bancu, commits it and leaves the team in numerical inferiority”, pointed out Ovidiu Ioanițoaia.

To be seen tonight CFR – Rapid and FCSB – UTA. Radoi must confirm; he came as “salvatore della patria” and got a disappointing result with Metaloglobus, both in score and performance. Now FCSB should also confirm, fly into the play-out, although UTA will sell their skin dearly

– Ovidiu Ioanițoaiadirector of Gazeta Sporturilor

“Mircea Lucescu is more optimistic than I am”

Ioanițoaia also prefaced the dam with Turkey for over 6 days. He confessed a concern of Mircea Lucescu.

“Lucescu is tireless, he goes to all the matches, he doesn't miss anything; even the illness that kept him in the hospital for a while didn't manage to cure him of the commotion, of the desire to be everywhere, to see all the matches, to score. When you call him at 9 in the evening, he's watching the tapes or he's on the computer.

It's a bad moment, we have a lot of injured people, the news also came that Marius Marin is unavailable…

I spoke with Lucescu, he is more optimistic than I am. I think he made two good decisions, in my opinion: that he called the squad a little faster, that he advanced the stage and that he decided to go to Turkey the day before, not to keep the players in that tension.

It will be crazy, it doesn't suit Turkey to get out of the books for the World Cup now either. But Lucescu has big lot problems. One of his worries, which he shared with me, is that he doesn't have backup at Bîrligea, our only peak, given that Drăguș is suspended and others are injured. If, God forbid!, something happens with Bîrligea as well, we are really playing without a top, the national team will have to look like Dinamo, with an improvised top.

Lucescu is a fighter, he sees things more optimistically, rosier than I do. Turkey has the first chance. Okay, that's the rule, good, bad, but it must be followed. It is not normal for a team to qualify for the World Cup after only one match, and that on the field of one of the national teams. If the stakes are so high, give the teams a chance to play home and away so they can balance it out. That's the trend though, to make more money and, subsidiarily, to enhance the show; the regulations are what they are,” added the Gazeta director.

• HERE – the team called by Mircea Lucescu for the tie with Turkey.
• Turkey – Romania will be played on March 26, from 19:00, match broadcast by Prima TV. If we win, we play the World Cup qualification final against Slovakia/Kosovo on March 31, 2026.
• Gazeta Sporturilur will have 6 experienced reporters in Istanbul, who will send the most important information, the best reports and a series of multimedia correspondence.