After this afternoon's physical training session on Leblon beach, coach Andrade stated that he expects a very tough match against Coritiba on Sunday at Maracanã in the Brazilian Championship. According to the coach, the green and white team has great players and needs a win to move away from the relegation zone.

"Coritiba deserves all our respect. We have to be very careful, because it's going to be another tough game in this Brazilian Championship. Their team has great players, like Marcelinho Paraíba and Ariel. They're two very dangerous attackers. But at home, we have an obligation to win. A good result is essential to get even closer to the leaders. We're working hard to put in another strong performance."

Andrade highly praised the performance of the red-black defense, which has not conceded a goal in the last three games.

"We managed to fix the defense. We were conceding silly goals in some matches. Now I feel the defense is more secure. Álvaro's arrival was very important for the team. He's an experienced player who talks a lot on the field. Angelim's performance has improved significantly since he came on."