Brugge master rain in Romania

FC Dinamo Bucuresti 0-1 Club Brugge KV (Brugge win 4-2 on aggregate)
Club Brugge KV mastered the rain in Romania to defeat FC Dinamo Bucuresti for the second time in a week and advance to the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.

Shakhtar next
Dinamo, the Romanian champions, were always going to find tonight's second leg difficult after suffering a 3-1 reverse at the Jan Breydelstadion last week. A 1-0 victory for Brugge in Bucharest means they must now survive another trip to eastern Europe to reach the group stages, Ukrainian champions FC Shakhtar Donetsk their next opponents.

Playing at pace
Brugge looked the more likely winners at the Dinamo stadium, playing counterattacking football at pace from the off as the home side drove forward in search of an early goal, often too keenly as long balls from defence and midfield were comfortably gathered by the tall visiting back line.

Intent sounded
José Duarte sounded Brugge's intent in the 13th minute, going close after another swift break, but Dinamo failed to take heed and Norwegian international Rune Lange opened the scoring seven minutes later after finding himself unmarked in the area following an instinctive pass from Birger Maertens, who had dispossessed Giani Kirita.

Six chances
Each team had three opportunities to add to the scoring, but all six chances went begging. Ionel Danciulescu was the recipient of Dinamo's openings, Verlinden thwarting him on two occasions, while Andrés Mendoza, who shot wide, and Ebrima Sillah, twice denied by Cristian Munteanu in the home goal, were Brugge's men on the spot.

’Midfield flexibility’
Brugges coach Trond Sollied was rightly pleased at beating Dinamo home and away. "I am happy that we won twice," he said. "We were very well organised defensively and the midfield's flexibility allowed us to create a number of chances - one of which we converted, but there should have been at least one more."

’Happy that it rained’
Sollied also felt the appalling weather was a factor, adding: "I am very happy that it rained because in Belgium it rains much more than it does in Romania and we are used to such conditions. Our task thus became easier in front of tough opponents."

’Team in its infancy’
Cornel Dinu, the coach of Dinamo, admitted his developing team had come up against too tough an opponent. "Obviously the team we played had many better players than ours - players with international experience," he said. "I'm afraid bad luck was our twelfth man today. A misunderstanding in our defence proved decisive but this team is in its infancy and does not have much experience."