Flamengo won an important duel against Santos 1-0, on Thursday afternoon (15), and celebrated the anniversary with the positive result alongside the Nation at Maracanã. After the game, coach Dorival Júnior spoke to the press in a press conference and praised the group's performance. "I congratulate Flamengo and our immense fan base for another year of existence marking the history of Brazilian and world football," he said at the beginning of the interview.

When asked about the current situation in the Brasileirão, Dorival said he's primarily focused on the Mais Querido's performance. "We have to worry about our condition and our results. It's been like this round after round. Palmeiras has an advantage, and we need to respect it, but as long as mathematical possibilities exist, we'll keep fighting for the best possible position. We won't lose focus. I'm happy to see that we maintained balance and control despite important absences. We positioned ourselves well on the field, and when that happened, we created more and achieved an important result against a team that demanded a lot of us," analyzed the red-and-black coach.

At halftime, the nation protested Mengo's performance, but celebrated with the group after the final whistle. "We have to understand the fans; we weren't satisfied, especially with our last performance. We expected something different from what we're seeing. The team managed to regain its balance, even after a nervous start. Santos knows how to exploit counterattacks well, but we positioned ourselves well, had few infiltrations from them, and managed to attack the space more. After the goal, we felt the need to guard the area more and brought Santos back a bit, opening up more space. But we had a good opportunity with Berrío, for example. Overall, it's important to emphasize that the fans' expectations are the same as ours. We always fight hard for them and for results. In some rounds, we didn't manage it, but the squad has been performing well. The last defeat was quite upsetting, but it shows our resilience. We're hopeful that things can happen in the very near future," said Dorival.

Henrique Dourado and Orlando Berrío, the protagonists of the Rubro-Negro goal, came off the bench to decide the game. "This is where the strength of the squad shines through. We won with three changes, and two of them directly contributed to the result, which is a very important fact. However, seeing the team perform well and dominate the match, as they have in some recent matches, conveys greater certainty than when we make a decision to change a player at a given moment in the game and he scores. I value the collective effort more than individual actions. Everyone is trying to read the match to make changes in various ways, so we always want to see our team playing well and satisfying the fans," explained the manager.

César had a key performance and even saved a penalty, playing a key role in the match against Santos. "Football always shows us these sides. Perhaps there's only a hand's breadth between hero and villain in this match. He's a kid who's growing and maturing, having been raised at Flamengo. I'm very happy because he's been improving significantly. Much of today's victory is due to his performance," concluded Dorival Júnior.

Flamengo returns to the field on Sunday (18), at 17 pm, when they face Sport in the Brazilian Championship at Ilha do Retiro.