Article by Alexandru Tomuțiu – Published Friday, March 27, 2026, 9:57 p.m. / Updated Friday, March 27, 2026 10:01 p.m.
Sorin Cârțu (70 years old), the honorary president of Craiova University, analyzed the failure suffered by Romania in Turkeyscore 0-1.
Sorin Cârțu blames Andrei Rațiu for the goal scored by the “tricolors” in Istanbul. He believes that Romania's midfield moved very poorly in this match.
Sorin Cârțu gave the verdict: “Andrei Rațiu made a mistake with the goal scored by Turkey”
“I'm so disappointed with what happened. Turkey were the favourites. I expected a different performance from us, especially when we had the ball. We tried many times to develop the play from the goalkeeper, but we never managed more than getting the ball to a central defender, who gave a long ball to Bîrligea. He was very isolated.
You have to come into the game and the midfielders have to perform well. I also mean Răzvan Marin, and Dragomir, and Hagi, they mostly hid. Then you surely have nothing to offer to those in front. There we saw a big minus for us. Take and change Mircea, they did not stand out in the development of the game.
As much as we caught them and blocked their assets, but our performance was not what we should have shown. And the goal came from the wrong positioning: according to the theory, the formation of four implies that when the ball is in the area where Arda is, the right-back, Rațiu, must be closer to the central defenders. Thus, this would never have happened.
You, as a right-back, must cover the area, be closer to the bar, so that the distance between the right-back and the stopper is a maximum of 8-10 meters. I speak from the book, from theory.
Rățiu, focused on the referee instead of retreating after losing the ball // photo: Imago Images
I appreciate Rațiu a lot, but he has to adapt to what the coach asks of him. Bancu played well, maybe less offensively, but given the opponents he had, it was very difficult to risk certain actions. He had a good phase when he cared for Hagi and we had a chance to score. Unfortunately, there were too few”, said Cârțu, at Prima Sport.
If I would change something, it would be in the organization of the championship, this U21 rule. It helps us to a certain level, you still appear at Europeans, but for nothing, we are not at the level of those we play with. It is a different football, of a different quality.
There is no such thing as preparing a match with only 10 players, because you must enter the 11th. Such a thing does not exist anywhere in the world. You take away the competition that a player needs while still young.
Even if young players appeared in Romanian football, they did not leave their mark on the national team, did not impose themselves and did not bring qualifications.
– Sorin Cârțu, honorary president in Craiova
