Flamengo’s most successful generation, with more titles even than the ‘Zico Era’, will fight this Saturday against Athletico Paranaense for their second Copa Libertadores in the last three years, after strolling through the knockout rounds.
Brazilian striker Gabriel Barbosa ‘Gabigol’ and Uruguayan midfielder Giorgian de Arrascaeta lead the constellation of stars who has managed to bring together the Rio de Janeiro team to the delight of a hobby that hopes to close the season with a flourish.
The project started in 2019 at the stroke of a checkbook, after selling several of its emerging stars, such as Vinícius Júnior or Lucas Paquetá, is still more alive than ever.
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NEW ‘GALACTICS’
now also reinforced with old acquaintances of European football like the central defender David Luiz or the Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal, to which we must add Éverton ‘Cebolinha’, back in Brazil after his discreet stint at the Portuguese Benfica.
In these three years he has known recycle defense, in which Filipe Luís, former player of Atlético de Madrid, Chelsea and Deportivo de La Coruña, still survives; and the midfield with the rise of the promising midfielder Joao Gomes, after the goodbye of Gerson and Willian Arao.
But the attack remains almost intact with ‘Gabigol’, Giorgian De Arrascaeta, Everton Ribeiro and Bruno Henrique, whose serious injury caused the irruption this season of Pedro, today a candidate to go to the World Cup in Qatar with the Brazilian team.
Because the great explosion of this year has been this 25-year-old Brazilian striker who was prevented from going to Real Madrid by a serious knee injury when he was a member of ‘Fla”s greatest rival, Fluminense.
On his return to Rio de Janeiro, after a brief adventure with Italian side Fiorentina, he has proven to be a surefire goal scorer. He has 12 goals in the 12 games of Libertadores, in the absence of the grand final.
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The team from Rio de Janeiro had a relatively simple group stage (5 wins and 1 draw) with the Argentine Talleres, the Chilean Catholic University and the Peruvian Sporting Cristal.
In the round of 16, they overwhelmed the Colombian Deportes Tolima with a global 8-1seven of them in the Maracana; in the quarterfinals they beat Corinthians, one of his greatest opponents in Brazil, winning both games and keeping a clean sheet; Y in the semifinals they swept Vélez Sarsfield 0-4 from the start in Argentine territory.
In the middle of the competition, a sudden change in the bench, with the dismissal of the Portuguese Paulo Sousa, former coach of Poland, and the arrival of the Brazilian Dorival Júnior.
Undefeated throughout the tournament, the change of coach has not prevented them from reaching the final, the third of the last four editions.
He raised the title in 2019, when he defeated River Plate 2-1, with two goals from ‘Gabigol’ in the last breath; and he was left with honey on his lips in 2021, which enthroned Palmeiras for the second year in a row (2-1).
In that last final, by the way, ‘Gabigol’ also scored.
WITH MORALE THROUGH THE CLOUDS
They also arrive at the final of this 2022 with a new title in their pocket: the Brazilian Cup.
Those led by Dorival Júnior won the KO tournament in a very close duel with Corinthians, which, unlike the Libertadores, they did not beat in the first leg (0-0), nor in the second leg (1-1).
In the penalty shootout they were more successful to add the tenth title of ‘Gabigol’ and company, surpassing the nine won by the cast led by Arthur Antunes Coimbra, better known as ‘Zico’, between the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80.
Since 2019, the red and black team has achieved a Libertadores (2019), two Leagues (2019 and 2020), two Brazilian Super Cups (2020 and 2021), a South American Recopa (2020), a Brazilian Cup (2022) and three Cariocas Championships (2019, 2020 and 2021).
