He Flamengo defeated this Sunday the Cruzeiro Cruzeiro won 2-1 and finished the thirteenth round of the Brazilian league as the sole leader, with a three-point advantage over Bahia and Botafogo, who share second place. Encouraged by a packed Maracaná, ‘Fla’ wasted no time in opening the scoring. They did so in the 16th minute through Pedro Guilherme, but at the end of the first half Matheus Pereira equalised for Cruzeiro.
Flamengo maintained their dominance after the break, with Fabrício Bruno scoring a header in the 60th minute and Adenor Leonardo Bachi ‘Tite’s’ team resisted Fernando Seabra’s men’s attempt to react. With this result, they remain alone in first place with 27 points, while Cruzeiro fell to seventh place with twenty.
Despite the victory, Flamengo suffered from the absence of five of its regular starters who travelled to the United States to play in the Copa América with their national teams. These are Uruguayans Giorgian De Arrascaeta, Nicolás De La Cruz, Guillermo Varela and Matías Viña, and Chilean Erick Pulgar, although the latter will have to return to Rio de Janeiro in the next few days after La Roja’s elimination in the group stage.
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Bahia, which entered the thirteenth round tied with Flamengo on 24 points, was defeated in its visit to São Paulo, managed by Argentine Luis Zubeldía. São Paulo won 3-1 with goals from Luciano, Ferreira and the also Argentine Jonathan Calleri, to reach 21 points that bring it closer to the top positions. Bahia, which reduced the gap through Gilberto, stagnated at 24, the same as Botafogo, which this Saturday tied 1-1 in its visit to Vasco da Gama.
It looks bad for Fluminense
At the bottom of the table, things are looking increasingly grim for Fluminense, which after winning the Copa Libertadores for the first time last year went into a tailspin, to the point that it fired coach Fernando Diniz this week, who had been with the club for two years. On Sunday, Fluminense lost 1-0 to Gremio and is now in last place, with just six points from thirteen games.
