Dinamo Bucuresti were definitely eyeing a spot in the play-offs this season, after an early elimination last time around in the group phase.
While their season has begun with two winless games, they still salvaged a 38:38 draw against GOG in the dying minutes of the match.
GROUP A
GOG (DEN) vs CS Dinamo Bucuresti (ROU) 38:38 (21:20)
- with 41 goals scored between the two teams in the first half, GOG and Dinamo were only five goals shy of beating the record in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League set by Kielce and Barça in 2018, when they combined for 45 goals
- a 6:1 run to start the second half was decisive for GOG to create a six-goal gap at 27:21, but Dinamo slowly cut the deficit until they took the lead with 34 seconds to go at 38:37
- GOG eventually sealed a draw with a goal from Oskar Vind Rasmussen, but it will feel like a missed opportunity for the Danish side to tie their best-ever start in the competition, two wins in two games
- 21-year-old left back Simon Pytlick had his best-ever outing in the European premium competition, scoring nine times – almost as many goals as he scored in the entire 2019/20 season, his only previous Champions League experience
- this was the highest-scoring draw in the history of the competition, with no other game having two teams scoring at least 38 goals each and finishing in a deadlock
New faces, same habits for Dinamo
Dinamo made all the right moves to mould the team exactly how coach Xavi Pascual wanted it to look, yet the result will surely not satisfy the Spanish ace. Despite bringing in stalwarts like centre back Lazar Kukic and right back Stanislav Kasparek, the Romanian champions are still without a win, but they have something to build upon.
They proved immense character to get out of the ground they dug themselves into in the first half and sealed a crucial point for the future of the group. However, they are still leaking goals at the defensive end, conceding at a rate of 34 goals per game in the first 120 minutes of the new season.
