Article by Daniel Scorpie – Published Sunday, November 16, 2025, 2:28 p.m. / Updated Sunday, November 16, 2025, 2:32 p.m.
The Florentine pensioner's band of barbarian stakes beat us, literally and figuratively, in the broken medieval fair where they welcomed us with a three-piece hand at the Zenica poker table. The selector with a special pension, self-titled immune to dismissal, led to the World Cup play-out the alandala gang of Drăguși, who danced a half on a good book and then pulled the trigger at halftime!
A week after the selector who led Romania to its first World Cup after the Revolution passed into the world of the righteous, the epigones of the Golden Generation reached the words of the late nea Imi.
Counter performance made up by the eternal alibi of arbitrations! The only thing that was hostile to us was the atmosphere and the wheel pull in Zenica
Mircea's boys didn't want to listen to him… We deluded ourselves with the “all'ultimo respiro” victory against Austria, the weakest seed we could find in the draw, with a more accessible group than ever. So that, at the end of the war, we would have disillusionment in Zenica, a medieval hell, where ours still had little and were dragged on the wheel, on the orders of the English chef with a whistle!
But let's not blame the referee again, the obsessive excuse of the coach who never got to play a Derby della Madonnina and will probably end his career with the pale qualification for the play-offs and the consolation of the perfect route of the third world football with the generation of who gave his soul in Bosnia!
Let's see our long nose, as long as Pinocchio, with branches, after we lied to ourselves that we will parachute into the 2nd valor urn and string up our opponents, returning after 28 years to the World Championship!
As you can see the golgotha that the play-off or (let's hope?!) play-offs have in store for us, because we will play the semi-final on the field of a top seed, we still have to wait for the final tournament to be expanded to 64 teams to get a place in this century.
Bosnia – Romania // PHOTO: Ionuț Iordache (GSP)
Nice to clean both sides of Mircea Lucescu. And the other Dennis was The Menace without a goal, good only in Eindhoven!
I don't think that we also lost the second leg with Bosnia only because of the “pušcașo-vlădoiste” figure prematurely removed the card hunter. Really, what an irony of fate: Lucescu took out the eliminated in the Superliga and put in the tip that cleaned him in Bucharest as wellwith the player misses from Turkey's tail, and who didn't last even one round of boxing yesterday.
After seeing red in front of his eyes, Drăguș's vision darkened and he collapsed, crying into his fists, in a corridor forgotten by the world. That image of Denis with a single n will haunt us for a long time, as will the question of how a band of stakes came out of nowhere to turn the game around after the break with a completely different half.
But our lovelies showed their limits when the hostile hosts took out their knives on the table and spilled our blood, reversing roles with Dracula in a night of horror.
The other Dennis remained The Menace. If you don't hit the back of the net when you have those chances and we had to kill the game, it's for nothing that you “doppietta” with Napoli or slalom through the stilted defenders of the Netherlands. The difference was made, unfortunately for him, but also for us, by the fine technician kid from Eindhoven, none other than his competitor in the position. Bajraktarevic put the ball in the TikToker's shoes and showed Man what unstoppable execution is all about, and in one go!
Vlad Prafos and Ianis Trendyol, swollen after a 1-0 with Austria!
And Vali Mihăilă, separated in Turkey from his “twin” from Parma, remained in the locker room after the first 45 minutes, in which he sometimes reminded us of the savior from Lausanne, but he reached his peak in the clown scene with Bârligea after the goal. There would not be much to say about the rest of Mircea Lucescu's chosen ones. For, with the exception of the Martyr Marinus—that of Pisa, and not the Greek shot on the right—they were sublime, but utterly lacking in appeal. From Vlad Prafos to Ianis Trendyol, overrated after just one match and a record win with Austria.
Excuses can be found, that we lacked the stoppers of hope and so we were left with Ghita and the modest stopper from the Conference at the gate wide open to the executioners of 2 meters, Dzeko and Tabakovic (with the mention that the reserve is the second top scorer of the Bundesliga). The problem is that we also lacked the laterals, Sonic Rațiu being a Run Forrest after blaugrana horses on the walls and Chipciu, a lost in translations. Just as our Dear “tricolors” left us, after the glory lesson received by a band too weak for the purposes of the federation.
In football they say that you always have the chance that another match is coming and the chance of rematch. The dam was inevitable anyway, on the accessible route or the infernal one, but the Zenica disaster brought us closer to the play-out. Italy or Turkey could knock us out in the semi-final and we don't know who will be on the bench in March 2026.
Too nervous, Mircea Lucescu hotly dribbled the answer, which Mihai Stoichiță didn't shy away from giving today, on the idea that “why should the selector leave? Does someone want to kick him out? Yes, he will stay, he won the right to play the dam”.
If we keep our chances, as few as they are, we have to bet the chip with whatever poker player will be at the table, to dream of Las Vegas soccer casino.
