Dinamo cap emotional night with amazing win
Two teams that were heading in opposite directions in the EHF Champions League met in Bucharest on Thursday evening, but C.S Dinamo Bucuresti turned the tide in group B with a superb home win against Telekom Veszprém HC, 31:29.
It was an emotional game for two clubs that are linked through former Romanian line player Marian Cozma, who was murdered in 2009 while he was a Veszprém player.
GROUP B
C.S Dinamo Bucuresti (ROU) vs Telekom Veszprém HC (HUN) 31:29 (14:13)
- Dinamo jumped to a 13:9 lead after a 5:1 run between the 18th and 26th minutes, but right wing Gasper Marguc's two goals during a 4:0 run for the visitors helped Veszprém tie the game
- another 4:0 run late in the second half saw Veszprém tie the game, 27:27, but they only scored twice in the last six minutes
- Veszprém lost influential centre back Rasmus Lauge early in the second half due to injury
- with nine goals against Dinamo, Petar Nenadic jumped to third place in the top scorer standings in this season’s EHF Champions League Men, boasting a 38-goal tally, two shy of the top scorer, Vardar’s Timur Dibirov
- both of Dinamo's wins this season have come at home – against powerhouses Kielce and Veszprém – and the Romanian side can dream about progressing to the knockout phase
Ghionea honours Cozma’s memory with superb game
It was an emotional evening between two sides that share a history through former Romanian line player Marian Cozma. Veszprém signed Cozma from Dinamo in 2006, but he was murdered in the Hungarian city in 2009. Dinamo always have a banner in their stands with Cozma’s name, while Veszprém erected a statue of Cozma in front of their arena.
The friendship was, however, not to be seen on the court. There were 12 suspensions and one red card for each team, shown to defensive stalwarts Robert Militaru and Veszprem’s Adrian Sipos, but also a superb performance from Dinamo right wing Valentin Ghionea. A former teammate with Cozma, Ghionea scored seven goals, taking his all-time tally in the EHF Champions League Men to 469 goals.
I want to dedicate the victory today to the father of Marian Cozma. It was a special game for him. Today, I am very, very happy and proud of my team. Everybody wanted to play; everybody wanted to win.
We expected a difficult game. It was a bad match from our side because we did not react. As a coach, I am not satisfied. Until now we played five very good matches. It started with the defence, also with the running, and in the second half we missed a lot of shots.
