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A little over a month before the last match of the group stage, the Copa Libertadores will return tomorrow (24), in the round of 16.
Three Brazilian clubs play the first leg of this phase in the continental competition this Tuesday: Athletico-PR faces River Plate, at 7:15 pm (Brasilia time), at Arena da Baixada; Flamengo duel against Racing, at the El Cilindro stadium, at 9:30 pm; Santos plays against LDU, at the Casa Blanca stadium, in Quito (EQU), also at 7.15pm.
Since the competition stopped, Brazilian clubs have suffered from some factors, including covid-19 outbreaks in the Santos and Palmeiras squads, the change of coaches at Flamengo and Internacional and the resumption of good results, as happened with Athletic and Grêmio. .
OR sports contextualized the situation the Brazilian teams reach in the resumption of the Libertadores and what to expect from the clashes. Check out:
Athletic-PR
After being eliminated in the round of 16 of the Copa do Brasil for Flamengo, Atlético achieved four victories in a row, the last one being the triumph over Santos last weekend. With the recent results, the team led by Paulo Autuori has moved away from the relegation zone and is already in ninth place in the Brazilian Championship.
The opponent: Silver river
The momentum of the Paraná team is good, but UOL blogger Rodrigo Coutinho says that there is still no competitive level to face the current runner-up in the tournament.
He managed to reorganize himself in the last matches with Paulo Autuori. The implemented ideas are clear and start to get better execution. Despite this, it is far from being a more competitive stage to face River Plate as equals.
The Argentine team ranked first in Group D, which was the same as in São Paulo, with 13 points, with four wins, one draw and one defeat. In the Argentine Championship, he is runner-up in Group C, the last defeat was at the beginning of November: defeat 3-1 against Banfield, in surprise.
Flamengo
Flamengo is going through a moment of restructuring: Rogério Ceni took over the team and ended up being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Brazil Cup for São Paulo. Even with some instability, the red-black team remained among the leaders of Brasileirão and has the same score as the Atlético-MG leader, 39 points.
The opponent: Careers
Despite being a difficult rival to beat, Racing comes to the duel against Fla full of problems. The Argentine team is experiencing instability behind the scenes, former player Diego Milito (who was the club’s coach) resigned, Jonatan Cristaldo, Marcelo Díaz, Lorenzo Melgarejo, Augusto Solari and Dario Cvitanich are absent and the team led by Sebastián Beccacece has not won since then. on October 21 – when Estudiantes de Mérida beat Libertadores 2-1.
With the elimination in the Copa do Brasil, Flamengo will use the maximum force in the two competitions that remained in the year: the Libertadores and the Brasileiro. In the opinion of blogger Renato Maurício Prado, Rogério Ceni hit the team like in 2019 and the team enters ‘very strong’ in the continental competition.
With the return of the injured, Flamengo is very strong in these eighths of the Libertadores. Ceni returns to the victorious scheme of 2019 and only needs to adjust the defense to fight for the third championship, although he has strong opponents ahead (including a possible rematch against River Plate in the very final). If the coach was still Domènec Torrent, he would have no faith. With Ceni, the possibilities have increased enormously.
Guild
The gaucho tricolor is one of the teams that comes to the competition at the best time: the team led by Renato Gaúcho does not know what it is to lose 12 games. And the team fights at the top of the Brasileirão table, something that has not happened in recent years, since the coach always prioritized the knockout competitions.
The opponent: Guaraní-PAR
Despite having qualified for the Libertadores round of 16 and having a good Apertura tournament – equivalent to the first semester of Paraguayan soccer – Guraní is not doing well this year. In the Clausura there are seven games played, two defeats, two draws and three defeats, occupying the ninth position among the 12 teams competing in the tournament.
In the opinion of blogger Rodolfo Rodrigues, Grêmio has everything to pass without problems through the ‘middle team’ of the Guarani.
He has not lost 12 games, he is in the fight for the Brazilian title and the Copa do Brasil and is also strong in the Libertadores with the return of the main players, such as midfielder Jean Pyerre and defender Geromel. He has everything to go well with the Guaraní-PAR team.
International
Colorado is experiencing a very bad moment of the season: it was eliminated by América-MG in the quarterfinals of the Brazilian Cup, lost the leadership of the Brazilian Championship and faces one of the most rival rivals in the Libertadores round of 16 hard: Boca Juniors. The atmosphere is so bad behind the scenes of the club that in the face of a defeat by the Argentine team, coach Abel Braga can now leave the command of the team, even after just four games.
The opponent: Boca Juniors
The Argentine team is undefeated in Libertadores, in the group stage there were 4 wins and two draws. However, it comes from two consecutive defeats in the Argentine Championship, in La Bombonera: 1 to 0 for Talleres and 2 to 1 against Lanús.
In the opinion of blogger Menon, Inter faces the most difficult rival in the competition, but not because of the merits of the Argentine team, but because of problems in the technical command.
Inter have the toughest rival, not so much because of Boca’s qualities, but because of his choice for Abel Braga, a technician in frank decline.
Palms
Palmeiras were having a good time with coach Abel Ferreira, but they experienced their first defeat last weekend: defeat at the Brasileiro by Linterna Goiás. Due to an outbreak of covid-19 in the club, in the match against Esmeraldino, the team adds more than 20 absences, but believes that against Delfín they can count on recovered athletes. Alviverde had the best campaign in the Libertadores group stage and faces a more fragile opponent than the rest of Brazilians.
The opponent: Dolphin (EQU)
In the second round of the Ecuadorian championship, Delfín is ranked 13th out of 16 teams, with 9 points in 9 games: two wins, three draws and four losses.
In the opinion of blogger Marcel Rizzo, despite the absences, Palmeiras will maintain favoritism over the Ecuadorian team and has everything to reach the quarterfinals of the competition.
In theory, he did well in the draw, with a smoother path than other Brazilians but now he will have to overcome Covid. Under normal conditions he was a super favorite against Delfín, but with so many absences to see how Abel Ferreira can maintain favoritism.
Saints
Like Palmeiras, Peixe suffers from embezzlement due to a covid-19 outbreak. The team comes from the defeat against Atlético-PR, but remains at the top of the Brazilian table – it occupies the 7th position with 34 points, only two from the G-4.
The opponent: LDU
The Ecuadorian team was the leader of the first round of the national championship and in the second round it occupies the 3rd position, just one point behind the leader Emelec. For the Libertadores, they beat River Plate 3-0 and are a difficult opponent for Alvinegro Praiano.
In blogger Danilo Lavieri’s opinion, a draw for Santos would be a great result.
Unstable in the Brasileirão, Cuca’s team faces LDU and, worse, altitude. Returning to Brazil with a draw is a great result for Santos.
