Sibiu beat Dinamo București 100-92 in Divizia A on Saturday. The result was unexpected, and not only because the visitors entered the game as clear favourites. We had given a prediction of a home defeat with 56 per cent confidence, but the match took a different shape.
By then the visitors had already lost their clean-sheet run, a streak that had ended two weeks ago against Girona in a European fixture. To be fair, they had responded well in the league with a 62-87 win over Rapid București, but Sibiu had been carving them open in the final minutes. The away end never stopped, yet the hosts found a way back into it.
And here's the thing — matches like this are decided by three or four moments, not by possession or shots. Sibiu's home form had been shaky, losing 86-90 to BCM U Pitești earlier in October, but they held the tie in their own hands when the visitors went for the jugular. The captain dragged them through it, and the scoreboard told the story.
The standings now shift slightly. Sibiu remain seventh with 28 games, 16 wins and 12 losses, while Dinamo București stay in second place with 20 victories and eight defeats. The gap between them does not change, but the psychological weight of the result belongs to the home side.
What the match showed was that the table goes out of the window in these games. Sibiu had nothing to do all evening in the first half, then suddenly found their rhythm. Dinamo București had the better players, but the visitors were left flat-footed when it mattered. One mistake ends it, and the hosts made fewer of them.
