Flamengo's Under-15 team defeated Fluminense 2-1 this Saturday morning at Laranjeiras, taking the lead in the Carioca Championship final for the category. Victor Hugo and João Pedro scored the goals for the red-black victory, and Matheus Santos scored for Tricolor. The decisive Fla-Flu will be next Saturday (10), at 10 am, at Gávea. The Garotos do Ninho can lose by up to one goal difference and still take the decision to penalties.

As soon as the referee blew the whistle to start the game, the Flamengo youth team took the lead. Six minutes into the match, João Pedro made a great play on the left, looked up and found Victor Hugo in the six-yard box. The Flamengo number 10 anticipated the defense and scored.

The goal startled the home team, and Flamengo pressed forward. In the 16th minute, in another play down the left flank, João Pedro entered the penalty area, won the physical battle, but his shot was weak. The opposing goalkeeper watched the ball go just wide of the post.

Later, at 28, Victor Hugo was fouled just outside the penalty area. João Pedro took the free kick and almost scored. The ball went just wide of the right post of the Tricolor goal.

Upon returning from halftime, the talk in the Fluminense locker room had an effect. Just three minutes in, a lightning-fast counter-attack down the right wing culminated in Fluminense's equalizing goal, scored by Matheus Sales.

Despite the intense heat, the Flamengo youth team players were in top form and focused on a positive result. The response came from Victor Hugo. Daniel Campos went to the byline and crossed to Victor, who challenged the defense and headed the ball just wide of the opponent's goal.

Fluminense dominated part of the second half and forced goalkeeper Christian to make some excellent saves. On one occasion, the Fluminense player took a powerful shot from outside the area, forcing the Flamengo goalkeeper to make a brilliant save in the corner and prevent what could have been the winning goal for the Laranjeiras team.

The Flamengo youth team was under pressure from the home side when, in the 32nd minute, João Pedro broke away from midfield, dribbled past one, two, three players, and one-on-one with the goalkeeper, simply had to choose his spot and celebrate. A fantastic goal that sealed the victory for Flamengo.

Flamengo took to the field with the following lineup:

Christian, Samuel, Diego, Kaiky and Richard; Jorge, Daniel Campos (Ryan Matheus), João Pedro, Victor Hugo (Pedrinho) and Oliveira (Leonardo); Ryan Luka (Jean). Coach: Mario Jorge.