Flamengo's patron saint is Saint Jude Thaddeus, but Saint Peter hasn't stopped watching the red-and-black team this season. After all, rain has become a common occurrence at the Gávea team's matches. Just look at the recent matches of coach Rogério Lourenço's team: against Vitória, at Barradão, rain. Facing Corinthians and La U, at Maracanã, more rain.

And for the players, this ends up hurting their performance on the field. The pitches get heavier, the ball doesn't roll, and a team whose main strength is precisely its fast ball passing ends up not performing as well as it could. Defender Ronaldo Angelim lamented that the weather hasn't been helping the team from Gávea.

"It's been a while since Flamengo played on a pitch in good condition. The last time was against Corinthians (at Pacaembu). It's difficult to score goals, to get a win. But the team fought, dedicated themselves. Now it's time to think about the Libertadores," he said.

It's worth noting that Flamengo and Universidad de Chile faced off shortly after Rio de Janeiro's heaviest rainfall in four decades, on April 6th. The teams played three days later at the Maracanã stadium, on a heavily damaged pitch. For Thursday's match, the forecast is for cloudy weather in Santiago, with a high of 20°C and a low of 5°C, according to The Weather Channel.