Following the match between Flamengo and Atlético-PR, which ended with a 2-1 victory for the home team, coach Zé Ricardo and midfielder Willian Arão were present in the press room at Arena da Baixada, where they gave a press conference. The Flamengo fans made their voices heard in the opposing stadium, even in smaller numbers, and the Flamengo coach is counting on that support in the next match as well.
Looking ahead to the match against Universidad Católica, which will take place next Wednesday (03), at Maracanã, Zé Ricardo emphasized the home advantage. "We will make our home advantage count again. I hope our fans will fill Maracanã again and push our team forward, because we have been deserving of this qualification," he said. Éverton, who is out of tonight's match, was also one of the topics addressed in the interview. "We will do an evaluation tomorrow at the training center to see if he will be available for Sunday's game against Fluminense," he added.
On Sunday (30), Mais Querido will face Fluminense in the final of the Campeonato Carioca, and the coach was questioned about the possibility of resting players in the match. "This is a very delicate issue, which I cannot answer 100% right now. We will make the assessment that we always do the day after the game and, according to how the players present themselves, we will prepare the team for Sunday. The important thing is that the team is as complete as possible. Those players who are in condition to face not only Fluminense, but the sequence we have ahead, will go to the field," he commented, valuing the quality of the Flamengo squad.
"Of course, we'll need to make the most of our entire squad, and today proved that. We lost Éverton at the last minute, which wasn't in the plan. We already have Diego out. This proves that we have a group that, regardless of who plays, will be ready to face the Tricolor team," he concluded.
Next, Willian Arão analyzed Flamengo's performance in the match, speaking about the team's approach in both halves. "In the first half, we knew we couldn't stay back the whole time. We tried to get out of our own half, to get the team out of their own half so we wouldn't suffer that pressure. Sometimes we succeeded, sometimes we didn't. The same was true in the second half. We made a tactical change and dominated the game. We had some shots on goal before they started making their substitutions as well. But we knew we were doing well in the match, that we were dominating. We had a chance to equalize, but we didn't finish well. There's that feeling that we did almost everything to get the perfect result here, but we couldn't put the ball in the net," Arão concluded.
The Most Beloved returns to the field on Sunday (30), when it will face the classic against Fluminense, valid for the first game of the Carioca Championship final. The confrontation will take place at Maracanã, with the ball rolling from 16 pm.