Over €100m in his back pocket - How Drağusin helped guide Romania to victory

It was the 72nd minute. Romania were already up 3-0 over Ukraine when a low cross from Andriy Yarmolenko was hammered into the box. Rather than finding Artem Dovbyk, defender Radu Drağusin cleared the ball with a spectacular tackle. The 22-year-old then screamed into the Munich sky in satisfaction. If Ukraine had any hope of still coming back into the match, that moment completely killed it off.

Romania’s 3-0 victory over Ukraine might be the first upset at Euro 2024. After all, beleaguered Ukraine have a squad value of €379m, almost four times that of Romania’s €92.13m. The Ukrainian starting XI included six players playing in Europe’s top five leagues: Andriy Lunin (Real Madrid), Ilya Zabarnyi (Bournemouth), Oleksandr Zinchenko (Arsenal), Mykhaylo Mudryk (Chelsea), Viktor Tsygankov and Dovbyk (both Girona).

To put it into perspective, the front three of Mudryk, Tsyankov, and Dovbyk have a combined market value of €100m more than Romania’s entire squad together. But it wasn’t enough to break down a defense led by Tottenham center-back Drağusin. On top of that, Ukraine keeper Lunin was directly involved in the first and second goal. On the first by Nicolae Stanciu (29’) the Real keeper gave the ball away needlessly, and on the second, Razvan Marin’s (53’) shot slipped underneath his body. Four minutes later, Denis Dragus ended it with a tap-in.

Drağusin underlines value for Romania – Is it time to move on from Tottenham?

"Clearly, there were different components of the game,” Ukraine head coach Serhiy Rebrov said after the game. “We had possession but didn't create any chances.” It was a brilliant day for Romania and their center-back Dragusin. Indeed, with that performance in mind, is it time for the 22-year-old to get more love from Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou. Dragusin managed just nine appearances with a total of 424 minutes since joining the North London side from Genoa for €25m in January.

Today, however, Drağusin showed his brilliance. The 22-year-old completed 18 passes with an 89% pass accuracy, had one interception, two blocked shots, ten clearances, and won 100% of all his duels. It was a big part of leading Romania to their second clean sheet in Euro history in 16 years ago when the country held France to a 0-0 draw. The performance underlined Drağusin’s ambitions to play more in the Premier League.

'If he doesn't play, we'll have to think of other solutions, but at the moment, I don't think so because he only arrived in January,” Drağusin’s agent, Florin Manea, said earlier in the spring. “Then you never know in life, let's hope not, but you never know.” A good Euros could indeed create a good market for Drağusin this summer. But without a doubt, Postecoglou will have been watching, too, and a few more performances at the Euros might also be the foundation for a strong second year at Tottenham.