WITH VICTORY AGAINST CRUZEIRO, FLAMENGO ACHIEVES GREATEST INVENCIBILITY IN THE HISTORY OF DIRECT CONFRONTATION

Flamengo is the clear leader of the Brazilian Championship. On Thursday night (4), in Caxias do Sul, Palmeiras visited Grêmio and drew 2-2. With the result, Abel Ferreira's team reached 27 points in the league table, but was overtaken by Botafogo, which is now in second, with the same 27. The Rio rival wins by the number of victories.

Now, Flamengo is comfortably in the lead, as it has 30 points on the leaderboard. In the next round, Mengão will host Cuiabá, at 8pm, on Saturday (6). Vice-leader Botafogo plays on Sunday (7), at 8:30 pm, against Atlético-MG, at the Nilton Santos stadium. Finally, Palmeiras also plays on Sunday, but at 6:30 pm, hosting Bahia de Everton Ribeiro at Allianz Parque.

The team from Salvador beat Juventude in this round by 2-0 and reached fourth place in the table, with the same 27 points as Botafogo and Palmeiras. In other words, a direct confrontation in the next round between the Alviverde team and the 'Esquadrão de Aço'.

Even playing away from home, Palmeiras controlled the actions and had 60% of the ball possession compared to just 40% from Grêmio. However, this did not prevent the Grêmio players from finishing: there were 14 shots. On the other hand, the São Paulo team took risks 21 times. Grêmio opened the scoring with Pavón in the second minute and with a penalty, Cristaldo increased in the 70th minute.

However, in the 74th and 77th minutes, Palmeiras sought a draw with Flaco López and Estevão, respectively. After that, the match slowed down and ended in a 2-2 draw. Palmeiras' defeat would be better for Flamengo, but the draw already guarantees a smile on the red-black fans' faces.

It's become routine! When Flamengo plays away from home it is: a full stadium and a sold-out visitor section. So, the scenario was no different this Wednesday (03), when Mengão scored 4-2 against Atlético-MG, at Arena MRV. At the match, almost 40,000 people helped the stadium have the biggest audience of the Brasileirão 2024.

More precisely, 39,993 fans witnessed the Minas Gerais team's stumble to its Rio rival. It is worth mentioning that the biggest audience at Arena MRV for Brasileirão 2024, until then, occurred in a match between Atlético-MG and Atlético-GO. At the time, 39,767 people watched the teams draw 1-1.

It is worth noting that in at least four other games of the Brasileirão 2024, Flamengo guaranteed record income and/or attendance for the hosts of the games. In the first round, Mengão visited Atlético-GO at the Serra Dourada stadium, where the club from Goiás raised R$ 4.4 million, which determined 702% more than the collection in the average game.

Afterwards, Vasco moved the game with Flamengo to a larger stadium, and, instead of playing in São Januário, for 21 thousand people, they made an agreement to play at Maracanã, where they achieved record attendance at the Brasileirão. On that occasion, Mengão beat their rivals to a historic 6-1, under the eyes of 62,200 people.

Athletico-PR x Flamengo brought 38,641 people to the Ligga Arena, surpassing the audience for the Paranaense Championship final. Finally, the audience present at the Alfredo Jaconi Stadium for Juventude's game against Mengão was 12,675. Previously, the “record” of the Rio Grande do Sul team in Brasileirão 2024 had been against Corinthians, when 7,478 fans went to the venue.

Flamengo faces Cuiabá this Saturday (06), in the 15th round of the Brasileirão. For the game at Maracanã, the club's football department decided to keep Gabigol away. The striker will be missing for the third consecutive match amid internal turmoil over the future of his career.

Gabigol continues to train normally with the rest of the group during the week. This is because the club does not rule out remaining with the number 99 shirt in the second half of the season. On the other hand, Tite's technical committee does not include the attacker in the plans for this current sequence of games.

Flamengo's football department cut Gabigol from the game against Cruzeiro, on June 30th. Subsequently, the suspension was maintained for the match against Atlético-MG, last Wednesday (03). Now, the player is out of the clash with Cuiabá, this Saturday (06).

Flamengo and Gabigol accentuated the friction after the club offered another year of contract for renewal, with a 50% salary increase. Therefore, the attacker felt devalued due to the length of his contract and refused the offer. Soon after, businessman Junior Pedroso publicly revealed that he would start working on the departure of number 99 from Rubro-Negro.

Some clubs have already shown interest in signing Gabigol, who has been able to sign a pre-contract since last Monday -Friday (01). Palmeiras, Santos and Grêmio have already made contact with the athlete's staff. However, the Alviverde club is the one that can most advance in the negotiations.

It is worth remembering that Gabigol has five games for Flamengo in the Brasileirão and can only enter the field once again if he does not want to reach the limit and be prevented from doing so. to play for a new club. Another point to be highlighted is the transfer window, which is open between July 10th and September 2nd.