Article by Maria Olteanu – Published Monday, 27 April 2026, 08:08 / Updated on Monday, 27 April 2026 08:09
At the end of Sunday night's game, which Dinamo managed to win against rival Rapid, score 3-1, in the 6th stage of the Superliga play-off, former international Basarab Panduru (55 years old) was surprised by the way Costel Gâlcă's students showed up for this match.
Rapid had several days of rest against the opponent, who played 120 minutes in the semifinals of the Romanian Cup with Craiova University in the middle of the week, but this was not seen on the field.
Costel Gâlcă's team continued to look modest and say “goodbye” to any chance of a title in a season in which they started in the play-offs second favorite, after Craiova.
Basarab Panduru cannot explain the attitude of the rapidists
After seeing them at work for 90 minutes, Panduru could not explain the way Gâlcă's students showed, dominated in absolutely all chapters by dynamists.
“I didn't expect this result, does this fatigue exist? Or is it just in the heads of some players? We have a team that plays so many minutes on Thursday, with morale on the ground and plays against a team that trains normally and comes to the game as if they climbed the mountain this morning. There is a big difference between what we believe and what we have seen. It's a surprising result!” said Panduru, on the show “Fotbal Show”, from Prima Sport.
In addition, Ovidiu Herea drew attention to another detail, the injury and premature change of the goalkeeper Marian Aioani, who lasted only 3 minutes in the match.
“It's not ok, but look, in this situation, knowing that you have Briciu, you say let's take a risk, I start, that it's an important match. I'm sure that if Iliev was on the bench it would have been different. He thought he could take as much as possible out of this match. It's clear that you can't rely on Briciu, he's a child, and this was a derby,” said Herea.
“Neither have I seen anything like this before. But maybe they gave him creams and he said that maybe it's better, he went in and realized that everything came back. He realized that they didn't have anything in the bank, Briciu is a child”Panduru added, in turn.
Play-off standings
