In a direct confrontation played on Saturday afternoon (07) in Gávea, Flamengo's U-17 team, led by coach Ramon Lima, easily defeated Santos 3-0 (Werton, Mateus Dias and Victor Hugo), in the eighth round of the Brazilian Championship in the category. The important victory against the biggest rival in the fight for the fourth place in Group B, added to Ceará's defeat to São Paulo, mathematically guaranteed the classification of the Garotos do Ninho for the quarterfinals of the competition, even with one round to go. Next Tuesday's duel (10) against Vitória, in Barradão, will only serve to complement the table. Rubro-Negro awaits the definition of Group A to know its opponent in the knockout stage.

The game started evenly and tensely, as every decision tends to be. Flamengo created the first chance, and they narrowly missed opening the scoring. In the 17th minute, Fabricio Yan struck a powerful shot from the edge of the box, out of reach of goalkeeper Mauro, but the ball capriciously bounced off the crossbar and out of bounds. In the 22nd minute, Fabricio Yan again took a chance from the edge of the box. Mauro made another save. Flamengo was attacking more, and scored the first in the 36th minute. Werton received the ball wide on the left wing, cut inside, and fired a cross. The ball hit the post and ended up in the Santos net.

Even with the lead, the Ninho Boys didn't slow down, extending their lead in the first half. In the 44th minute, Mateus Dias pressured the opposing defense, kept the momentum going until the end, and beat the goalkeeper to score the red-and-black's second goal of the match. 

Just seconds after halftime, Mengão scored their third. And it was a stunning goal. Victor Hugo received the ball at the edge of the box, dribbled past two defenders, and slotted past Mauro to extend the lead and give Mengão even more confidence in the game and the championship. Bring on the knockout stage!

Flamengo: Kauã, Breno (Arthur Augusto), Diego, Darlan (Cleiton), Richard Almeida (Pedro Turini); Dudu (Igor França), Fabricio Yan (Rayan Lucas), Victor Hugo; Will, Werton (Petterson) and Mateus Dias. Coach: Ramon Lima.