Article by Cosmin Nistor – Published on Thursday, 05 March 2026 22:43 / Updated on Thursday, 05 March 2026 22:50
With two defeats in a row in the Superleague, Dinamo was forced to go further in the Romanian Cup, especially since the opponent was Metalul Buzău, 9th place in League 2. The “Dogs” reach this stage for the first time after 5 years.
Alex Pop, after the goal scored in Dinamo – Metalul 1-0: “The cup is a clear objective”
Named “man of the match”, the game's only goalscorer said:
“A very good League 2 team, we expected that. We were actually talking in the locker room, we saw yesterday's match between Argeș and Bistrita and we talked about not having any surprises. We are happy that we mounted and it is important that we qualified.
It's hard to say if it should have been a higher score. When you play teams from the lower leagues, they rally against us. Yes, honestly, until the end I didn't notice that the fans had left. We did our job on the pitch, we had a game to win and we did it. What discussions are further is none of our business.
The cup is a clear goal because you can have a guaranteed place in Europe, which is much more difficult in the championship. No match is like another: we beat FCSB 4-3, Argeș beat us 0-1, today we won 1-0. We are recovering and, from tomorrow, we will prepare for the match in Cluj”.
Cristi Mihai: “You can talk in Oltenia about what they want”
And Cristi Mihai, the midfielder of the “red dogs”, commented on the game and the progress of the team, to the flash-interview from Digi Sport:
“I can't say we are happy with the game. We knew it was a battle, and we prepared on both fronts. If we can play our possession game and attack through the flanks we will, if not we will fight them because in football you have to have plan 2.
We want to win the Cup, because we drew twice with Craiova and we will definitely have to win. As I said, the Cup is the shortest way and we will do everything in our power to beat Craiova. It will be a tough game, we have to beat them and we will give everything on the pitch.
I don't want to talk about the event. They can talk in Oltenia about what they want, I'm not interested. Dinamo is talking about the Cup and the ranking, let's rank as high as possible. That's our goal.
I feel very good and I'm glad that I don't have any more injuries. Last year we had a hard time, and this is his decision mystery. In every game he will put in the best 11, and if I am there, even better”.
