Flamengo drew 0-0 with Corinthians on Wednesday night (12), in the first leg of the Copa do Brasil semi-final. After the match, coach Maurício Barbieri spoke about the result and the red-black performance.

"The numbers reflect the game. They had over 70% possession and 24 shots. The opponent barely had a shot, barely getting past midfield in the second half. We cornered them, and they couldn't exchange more than four passes. We were able to react well to losing possession by pressing. We weren't able to get many shots on goal due to their defensive posture, but we tried hard. They'll likely be more exposed in the second leg, so we'll take advantage of these spaces to create more chances, try to score, and come away with the win. We have to try to impose ourselves on our opponent's turf as well," analyzed the coach.

"Cássio didn't make any miraculous saves, but he did make some. We shot shots inside the box that we ended up missing, but we had opportunities to open the scoring and were very aggressive. We went after the goal intelligently, looking for space, and not giving him any chances. It's open; there's 180 minutes of play. We didn't manage to score in the first 90 minutes, but we'll try again there," Barbieri assured.

Maurício also spoke about the selection of forwards for the recent matches. "We've been choosing our forwards based on the characteristics of our opponents, who have been very defensive against us. It's difficult for the center forward to have more space because of this. We know we need to improve in some areas, create more, but we have little room to correct mistakes due to the lack of weeks to work. However, we will strive for improvements. Our idea is never to have possession for the sake of possession; it's to use it objectively. It's possession on merit, not just because they give it to us. We need to improve our judgment in how we use it," he added.

The next red-black challenge will be on Saturday (15), at 19 pm, when they go to Brasília to face Vasco in the Brazilian Championship.