[ad_1]
It was 35 minutes of good Flamengo football in Guayaquil. With quality passes to compensate for the lack of speed and depth in the missing attack by Gabigol, Bruno Henrique, Pedro Rocha, Michael and Vitinho.
In a 4-2-3-1, with Gerson open on the left and De Arrascaeta thrown and rolling in the generous spaces that Barcelona offers between defense and midfield. Up front, Pedro pivoted and went around the area to finish, but he also opened spaces for his teammates. So the reigning South American champion built it 2-0 with relative ease.
Everything started to change even before the break. First, the red and black team clearly lost focus on the installation, then they got tired, even due to the lack of options on the bench and the repetition of old defensive errors.
Especially on the left, a fragile sector since the time of Jorge Jesús and even Pablo Marí, there, Vasco, River Plate, Santos and Al Hilal created goal plays at the end of last year. Léo Pereira and Renê failed and the Ecuadorian team returned to the game with Martínez’s goal. He could have tied for another foul by the red-black left sector, but goalkeeper César saved.
The victory brought relief from the context of seven cases of Covid-19 in the workforce, in addition to the four absences due to injury and suspension. All this after the biggest defeat of the team in the history of the Libertadores.
The three points seemed to lead the classification well in Group A, but the surprise came shortly after: the favorite Independiente del Valle, in his first match of the tournament outside Ecuador, was defeated 4-1 by Júnior de Barranquilla, without Borja and Teo Gutierrez.
Impressive result, and could have been more elastic as the Colombian team lost clear chances in both halves. The lack of intensity, even a certain lack of interest, from Miguel Ángel Ramírez’s team was scared.
Excessive confidence after the win over Flamengo? Focus on the decisive game against Barcelona for the national championship that got Moisés Caicedo off the bench? Or is the team not that powerful without altitude? Hard to understand.
The optimistic redhead may look at the standings and see a missed opportunity to finish the group lead. Even for the two games that remain in Maracana.
But the context makes it very dangerous. It is difficult to predict how many of those who tested positive will now be discharged for the game against Del Valle next Wednesday, taking advantage of the “gap” that benefited Boca Juniors against Libertad.
New pollutants can be added to the absent list and those that remain will have the wear and tear of the match against Palmeiras, if not postponed, at the request of Flamengo himself.
The scenario is complex. If he is defeated again by Del Valle and Júnior fulfills the obligation by beating Barcelona eliminated, Fla would reach the last round with the obligation to beat the Barranquilla team, which would come in with an advantage due to the goal difference -both are zero- .
Although the game that ends the group stage is only on October 21, the situation is not peaceful. Before the second place seemed assured, now you can be the leader or stop at the South American.
The champion is on a razor’s edge and will need the power of improvement that he showed in Guayaquil to survive the tournament.
