Dinamo maintains lead in Superliga
Dinamo Bucharest defeated UTA Arad 2-0 at the Arena Nationala to keep their place at the top of the Superliga. The Arena Nationala is the largest stadium in the country. This win gives the red-and-white side 33 points from 14 matches. The victory is the seventh win for the home side on their own ground. UTA Arad remains in 10th place with 18 points from 14 matches. Universitatea Craiova holds second place with 32 points, while Rapid sits in third with 30 points. FC Petrolul holds fourth with 24 points and U Cluj follows in fifth with 22 points. FCSB is in sixth with 21 points and Farul is in seventh with 20 points. Dinamo secured the victory to maintain their gap over Universitatea Craiova as they head into the next round. Dinamo holds a goal difference of 31-9, whereas UTA Arad has a goal difference of 16-19.
Scorers drive the win
Danny Armstrong and Diogo Pinto scored the goals to secure the win for the leaders. Armstrong, who received an 8 rating, had the most involvement in the match with 66 touches and 6 shots. He completed 22 of 32 passes and successfully finished 2 of 3 dribbles. Armstrong also won 7 of 11 duels and made 3 of 4 accurate long passes. He opened the scoring in the final minutes of the first half with a shot from 22-23 meters.
Diogo Pinto, who scored a hat-trick for Chindia Targoviste in the Romanian Cup earlier this week, earned an 8 rating after scoring in the 68th minute with a powerful shot from 13-14 meters. Pinto is the man of the moment for the squad of Nuno Campos. Alberto Soro acted as a metronom and provided the decisive pass for the second goal after helping open the score for the Scottish striker. Dean Zandbergen missed his first chance of the game in the 10th minute when his shot from a quality cross went wide of the six-meter line. Catalin Cirjan played as a playmaker and found space between the lines. Nikita Stoinov doubled Oprut on several occasions, while Raul Oprut was more offensive than in previous matches. Matthias Verreth, playing his first match as a starter, recovered many balls but the team lacked his usual diagonals.
UTA defense struggles under pressure
The Dinamo defense remained steady against the visitors. Martin Pascual returned to the starting 11 after a suspension against CFR Cluj and acted as a wall in the defense. David Irimia won his direct duel with Hakim Abdallah and won 3 of 5 duels. Alaa Bellaarouch earned a 7 rating for doing what he needed to do. Dino Alomerovic was very good on defense and left little space for Armstrong, who scored from a central position.
UTA Arad struggled to find ways to score. Dmytro Pospielov received a 4 rating because a soft pass led to the second goal for Dinamo. Hakim Abdallah was neutralized by the defense and received a 4 rating. Marius Coman left the match limping after struggling between the defenders. Marcio Da Rosa had problems with his crossing during the game. Peter Ouaneh anticipated several attempts from Soro or Verreth to open the game. Jayson Papeau provided the only fantasy in the Arad offense. Omar El Sawy had zero danger on the offensive side, recording zero successful dribbles and only 24 successful passes out of 28 attempts. Mino Sota tried to find his teammates in the wide areas with filtering passes but failed to find success. Alin Roman was not the decisive player for Arad today, and he saw a chance go to the bar via Tzionis. Marinos Tzionis hit the bar in the 78th minute. Adi Mihalcea said it is difficult when there are few options on the bench.
