The point won in the goalless draw against Guarani means that Palmeiras are one point shy of the classification to the knockout stage for the fourth consecutive year. The football displayed was rather uninspiring, but the result is adequate to an away night at the Libertadores Cup.
Line-up
Weverton; Marcos Rocha, Felipe Melo, Gustavo Gómez and Viña; Danilo (Ramires), Gabriel Menino (Bruno Henrique) and Zé Rafael; Lucas Lima (Raphael Veiga), Veron (Wesley) and Luiz Adriano (Willian)
Wesley received a yellow card.
Green Light
Gustavo Gómez, Felipe Melo and Weverton were imperative yesterday. Danilo and then Ramires lost possession a few times in the defensive half, but were saved by our defenders’ perfect night. When they couldn’t stop Guarani from concluding, Weverton showed the skills that the other day made Tite call him up to the National Team.
Yellow Light
The draw was a good result for Palmeiras, since Guarani is the strongest contender in the group and they were looking for a victory to tie with Palmeiras in number of points. However, the creative problems are still there and Luxemburgo is not finding a way to solve them.
Red Light
Palmeiras can’t seem to overcome the problems of Dudu’s departure. Yesterday, the team failed again to collectively play a nice game, and when this used to happen, Dudu could decide everything by himself. Veron did this against Bragantino, but he’s still too young and the Libertadores Cup is much harder. Rony arrived to be that guy, but his performance until now is disappointing. Will Luxemburgo find a way to fix this?
Next Challenge
Probably, Palmeiras will play Flamengo on Sunday 27th at the Allianz Parque. We say probably, because Flamengo asked CBF to postpone the match, since they are experiencing a covid outburst, affecting more than 30 people, among players and staff. CBF has turned down similar petitions recently, but as the club’s anthem goes: once Flamengo, always Flamengo…
Scoppia che la vittoria è nostra!
– – – ooo – – –
by Augusto Anteghini Oazi
*Here at Anything Palmeiras, we love football. We love Palmeiras. We are always keen to see Palmeiras play, and keen to write about it for you. But we’re against the return of football in a country that still hasn’t controlled the coronavirus pandemic. We express our deepest sympathy to the families whose loved ones have been taken by the disease.
ANYTHING PALMEIRAS 