Flamengo drew 1-1 with Independiente Santa Fé, on Wednesday night (18), at Maracanã, for the Conmebol Libertadores. After the match, coach Maurício Barbieri and midfielder Cuéllar spoke to the press in a press conference, commenting on the result.

“It was a result below what we expected, but we are fully capable of recovering the points we lost away from home. Now we need to think about going to Colombia next week and doing things differently. On Saturday, it will be the same mindset as always, we want a victory. We will see the condition of the players when they return tomorrow to decide who will play in the game,” the coach assessed. 

“We started the game well and had control, but we conceded a goal after a mistake. We tried to fix everything in the locker room, but they came back even more defensively minded for the second half. We didn't create as many chances as we wanted and we couldn't score, which isn't what we expected. In the first half we managed to find more space, but not anymore after that,” Barbieri added.

For Cuéllar, next week's game will be equally difficult. "It will certainly be complicated, they are a team that takes advantage of the altitude and we have to be prepared for that. We couldn't win away last year and we can do that in the next match in Colombia," said the midfielder.

This was Flamengo's second match played behind closed doors, due to a punishment imposed by CONMEBOL. “It's a different atmosphere; you don't have the fans pushing you on. It's an extra motivation. Other things in the match contributed to us not getting the result we wanted. We already knew we would face this. We talked before the game in the locker room and, because of their absence, we had to be more attentive and aware that we couldn't count on that support,” concluded Maurício Barbieri.

Flamengo returns to the field next Saturday (21), at 19 pm, when they face América-MG, at Maracanã, for the Brazilian Championship. Tickets for this match are already on sale through the Nação Rubro-Negra website.