After coming very close to defeating Cruzeiro in the last round, Flamengo's U-20 team plays the first of its two decisive games in the Copa RS Internacional this Friday (09.12) at 17:30 pm, against Toluca (MEX), at PUC Stadium. Only victory will do for Mais Querido, who if they also defeat Santos in their final match in the group stage, on Sunday, will qualify for the quarterfinals of the competition.

The team held its final training session before facing the Mexican team on Thursday afternoon at CT Parque Gigante, on the banks of the Guaíba River. After speaking with the group, coach Gilmar Popoca spoke about the importance of a victory that would keep Flamengo alive in the Copa RS Internacional, and about the Mais Querido's chances in the rest of the tournament.

"We know that the Copa RS is a very difficult competition, precisely because we view it as a preparatory phase for the Copa São Paulo in January. Therefore, we faced more mature teams, with more experienced players. Despite this, we played as equals and even dominated at times in the match against Cruzeiro, which is one of the four best teams in the country in its category, and which came to this competition with older players. This attitude of our team makes me very happy and confident that we can achieve these two victories and secure our qualification for the quarterfinals," said coach Gilmar Popoca.

Having scored the most beautiful goal of the Copa RS so far, with a beautiful shot from outside the box in the match against Cruzeiro, midfielder Gabriel Silva highlighted the importance of the team being more focused in the upcoming matches.

"We were very close to victory in the last game, but due to a collective error in the final minutes, we let it slip away. We know that mistakes like this can't happen again if we want to qualify for the next stage of the competition. We've already talked, and we'll go in much more focused and treating the next two matches as truly decisive, since now it's all or nothing for our team," said Gabriel Silva.