 On 12 April, he scored in the second leg of the Romanian Cup semi-finals against Oțelul Galați, helping his team to win 3–1 and advance into the final.On 3 May, Niculae scored a brace against FC Argeş and he also wore the captain's armband for the first time for the closing stages of the match, after both Ionuţ Lupescu and Adrian Mihalcea were substituted off.Niculae won his first major trophy of his career as Dinamo bagged their first top-flight title in eight years, by a twelve-point margin, contributing with 13 goals in 27 appearances.