Mircea Lucescu, a chariot of NERVES at the press conference before Romania

• Romania – San Marino the last match of the WC 2026 preliminaries, will be played on Tuesday, November 18, from 21:45, in Ploiești, at the “Ilie Oană” stadium.

• The duel will be liveTEXT on GSP.ro, with real-time information from Gazeta Sporturilor reporters. It will be live on Antena 1.

Romania comes after the stinging failure in Bosnia, 1-3, and the “tricolors” no longer have any chance for 2nd place.

VIDEO | Mircea Lucescu, statements before Romania – San Marino: “Don't ask me, ask me about tomorrow's game, that's the most important. The rest, what will happen, we'll see”

Asked by the GSP reporter whether he will continue or not, Lucescu avoided giving an answer. “We'll see,” the coach said.

• (no – Will you continue or not?). Don't ask me, ask me about tomorrow's game, that's the most important thing. In the rest, what will happen, we will see.

• We had a talk last night after we got back quite late. It was difficult to talk after what happened. This morning, with a clearer mind, I rewatched the game and everything that happened, especially in the second half. I introduced them to the San Marino team, with their current potential, players, type of game, prospects, what they want to do.

• I can't tear myself away from the last game. I have made some enormous mistakes, which I cannot discuss. Anything I said would be turned into a criticism of the players. I am responsible for the results. They must be responsible for the game and the directions they receive.

• When some directions are not followed that lead to defeat, I have to take action and I have to analyze it. It is not possible. We had a sensational match against Austria. Here we played a good game in the first half, exactly what we had to do, call them to press, bring them to the midfield, use the spaces behind them.

• The Bosnians realized that it is very difficult to win against Romania, that's why they reacted like that to the goals. I also told the boys: “this is the demonstration that you were superior to them”. Usually, when one team is superior to the other, it is much more tempered. These are discussions held today. They didn't have any chances to score, we took them absolutely crazy. When a team attacks, you immediately secure your defense, man-to-man marking.

“I told them before the game that I want to hear them roaring on the pitch, not screaming”

• There was no communication. We didn't talk. I told them before the game that I want to hear them roaring on the pitch, not screaming. The noise was very loud, but be understood. We had no communication, many things started from here. And the fear in the second half, especially after the accident suffered by Marius Marin, the fear of what could be. They entered the field with the idea of ​​making it difficult, we had to respond with the same situation. The referee also intervened.

• The referee had to stop the game for racist shouts, as happened in Bucharest for less important shouts. It didn't happen. We must protest to FIFA and UEFA. You could see that everything was ready. It was nothing accidental, it was prepared. The whole stadium at the same time did the same thing. There is no such thing. There is a limit to these things. Have some common sense and respect for others. We were not to blame for what two or three did. Then I found out about that banner from Serbia.

• It was not our team's fault, nor was it the country's fault. There has to be some respect from here. We lost the match because we were afraid in the second half. We played like we shouldn't have played. We lost him because in the important moments we didn't do what we were supposed to do. That's what we're left with.

• In the dispute with them, they had a half, we three. I would like the Romanian team to meet Bosnia again under different conditions. It is not possible with this arbitration. The general secretary of UEFA was telling me on the phone that there was a clear penalty in the tour with Bosnia. They suspended that referee for a short time, but we lost three points. Same with the one here.

• Cute shouldn't have lifted his foot to that level. He had to keep his balance. I don't want to blame it.

• We failed to repeat the match against Austria, when we played perfectly. We had the best chances against Bosnia, I don't remember our goalkeeper making any special efforts to stop them.

• I reproached them for the negative attitude I had at the end of the match. In the end, intelligence plays, knowing how to break the game, build, play long. Or, at the end of the game, it was the 78th minute, we could take it to ten without problems. They didn't have any chance to score after the elimination of Drăguș.

Lucescu criticizes Drăguș: “The whole problem is to develop his mind as a professional”

• We lost a lot of players. Every game we changed four or five players. It is not easy in two days.

• We use players who don't play and who don't manage to last the whole game. For me there is no sports form. For me there is running. To be able to run. Always know what you have to do in different areas of the field. If you fail to do them, the team loses.

• I had absolutely no discussion with Drăguș. I never even saw him again. I had a more special relationship with him. I have supported him constantly throughout this period. I gave him workouts to do. I believed and believe in his extraordinary qualities. You rarely find such players. Speed, technique, strength, dribbling. The whole point is to get your mind set as a professional.

• If not, miss out. That's why I didn't even want to talk to him. You can't enter the field like this! There are players who go in like that without thinking ahead. As a professional player you need to visualize the steps you need to take at all times.

• I have the biggest fault. I am responsible for the non-qualification. I am responsible for everything that results. They are responsible for the game, both. Do you want anything else? You're going to ask me when I resign. I am resigning, no one is dismissing me, so no problem!

• Bîrligea was no longer pressing physically. The Bosnians were coming over us. I said that Drăguș is fast, aggressive and can help. It was bad inspiration. Maybe I shouldn't have changed it, waited another five minutes.
  It is not known if I will still be at the dam, so there is no problem. The team is being built at the moment. The players know what they have to do and then we will see what happens. I have an age. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll get sick, God forbid. It's a while until March. If I had the players for even a week, things would change completely.

• As it was with Austria, I had a week. We had opportunities, we dominated. A very strong team Austria. At least a week, not two days. Some come on Sunday, some on Monday and some on Tuesday.

VIDEO | Lucescu nervously left the press conference

• I played with Racovitan. He played very poorly, he is guilty. I understand him, he is the third central defender. Here the distances are greater. He got a little lost. In goal he had to go man to man, use his body and hands, not let him control the ball.

• I am guilty. It's normal. Every time the boss is to blame. I haven't found the best solutions. I'm also guilty because I didn't get a penalty against Bosnia, because I gave red to Drăguș (no – ironic).

• I had to put them in a gym the week before to train really hard and fight with them. They beat us anyway. We have to prepare the game on the qualities of our players. They imposed their physical game and gave us two goals from that. There is no other solution. We had to play in such a way that they didn't have the ball or had it in midfield. Stop asking me about my resignation!

• I want to set things straight. Since I came, I've been asked when I'm resigning. Did I say I'm not sure I'm staying? I said I didn't want to talk about it. We'll see what happens.

The main statements offered by Virgil Ghiță:

• We are certainly disappointed after the failure in Bosnia. But we are professionals. We have to do our job, we go with the best thoughts, win and make the best game possible.

• We can do more. I don't understand this “that's enough” thing. We are a good generation, we have a good team, unfortunately we didn't do what we needed to do. We did it with our own hands, but there are still chances. We go confidently into the month of March. We have to go into March with confidence, we have to build on what was, to be better, to want more and we will definitely succeed if we do all these things.

• History has been written. I played a poor second half in Bosnia, so I have nothing to say to change anything. So it was, so it happened, and we move on.

• We know who we could play in the play-off, we talked a little bit, but whoever it is, we will analyze the team, the game well, we will focus especially on us. Let's play our game, play as well as possible and we'll see then.

• If we look at it today, all the teams are very good. It doesn't really matter who we play, what matters is that we play our best game and go there confident that we can beat anyone.

• I did not necessarily say that history was written in Bosnia. This campaign will end with tomorrow's match. I don't know exactly where we need to grow, improve on all fronts probably. I think we just need to focus a little more.

The “Tricolori” will be in the last ballot box at the World Cup draw. We will start with a one leg semi-final which we will play away from home against a Pot 1 opponent.

At this moment, before the matches on Monday and Tuesday in the preliminaries, Romania can meet one of Italy, Ukraine, Turkey or Poland.

Ranking from the Romania group