The greatest champion of the Copa do Brasil enters the field next Tuesday (11), who would have thought, as an underdog. Cruzeiro needs to beat Fluminense by two or more goals to get a spot in the quarterfinals of the competition. Victory by a goal difference leads to penalty shootout. Any other result ranks the Tricolor.
Despite remaining in the lead of Serie B, with 38 points, Raposa saw the advantage over Vasco decrease to four points in the last round. There are two games without a win, a draw against Ituano in a late match of the 14th round, and a defeat for Guarani.
More than 50,000 tickets were sold in advance, and Mineirão promises to be packed by the heavenly fans. Even so, coach Paulo Pezzolano asks for peace of mind if the team is eliminated: “I know that we all want to eliminate Fluminense, but nobody takes it out of my head that the main objective is access. I know that Cruzeiro’s history deserves all the championships in the world, but today this is the reality. On Tuesday we will go with everything, we know that we are going to play against a team that has much more quality than us, but we are going to be prepared, with the knife between our teeth, knowing that the most important thing is the next game against Novorizontino”.
If Cruzeiro is going through its worst moment since the Series B started, Fluminense is at its best. There are four consecutive victories and fourth place in the Serie A classification. Tricolor has not lost to Raposa for five matches, the last defeat was in 2018.
The teams have already faced each other four times in the Copa do Brasil. In 2006, Fluminense won two, 3-2 and 1-0, in the quarterfinals. In 2019, Cruzeiro was better. After two draws, 1 to 1 and 2 to 2, the Celeste team qualified in the penalty shootout, winning 3 to 1, with a great performance by Fábio, who today defends the Rio de Janeiro team.
