Michael arrives after magical seasons ahead of Al Hilal to be Flamengo's reinforcement

The Peñarol (URU) team was excited from the beginning of the trip to Rio de Janeiro, where they will face Flamengo, in the quarter-finals of the Libertadores. In addition to cheering the players on the flight towards the 'Marvelous City', the Uruguayans posted a montage of Christ the Redeemer with the club's flag.

As soon as they landed on Rio de Janeiro soil, the Uruguayan club published an image of a of the city's main tourist attractions. In addition to the photo, the team wrote the following message: “Peñarol em Rio”, alluding to Rock In Rio. Afterwards, a video showing the arrival of the athletes at Galeão Airport was also published.

Peñarol reached the quarterfinals of the Libertadores after beating The Strongest (BOL) in the round of 16. In the first game, the Uruguayan team defeated their opponent 4-0. On the way back, the Bolivian team even won by a score of 1-0, however, it was not enough to take away the classification of Diego Aguirre's men.

Before the game against Flamengo, Peñarol played in the Championship Uruguayan. On Saturday (14), Rubro-Negro's opponent beat Rampla (URU), by a score of 4 to 0. Given this situation, they remained undefeated in the national tournament.

Flamengo is coming off a bitter draw with Vasco on Sunday (15), however, they will have reinforcements for this Thursday's duel (19). Recovered from a thigh injury, De La Cruz is back in the team. In addition to the Uruguayan, Alex Sandro, Alcaraz and Gonzalo Plata were registered in the competition and, as a result, will be included in the clash.

Last Tuesday, the candidate for re-election for mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, denied the journalist Ancelmo Gois, from Globo. In a post on Instagram, the mayor informed that the city hall will be responsible for removing the megastructure on the gas meter site, different from what was reported. Furthermore, he guaranteed that Flamengo will have its new stadium, with the best conditions and security.

The news published by Ancelmo informs that Flamengo would have to pay R$100 million to remove a large gas structure present on land acquired by the club, which is owned by CEG and CEG-Rio, which are companies that are part of the gas concessionaire Naturgy.

According to the article, the companies were informed that Flamengo is the responsible for bearing the expenses, as provided for in one of the annexes to the land purchase and transfer contract. The clause, however, does not have a specified limit.

Paes stated that the values ​​for the transfer of the structure are different from what was pointed out in the article by Ancelmo Gois. Furthermore, it exempted Flamengo from any responsibility, and that the city hall has been planning to remove it for years.

“They are making me defend @flamengo more than I would like: let it be clear that this is not the The cost of this transfer and when it happens will be the responsibility of the city of Rio, which knows that this structure cannot be in an area that is already receiving so many residential buildings. It's been in our plans for a long time! Flamengo will have its new stadium there in the gasometer with all the quality and safety that the region demands and deserves. Period!”, published the mayor.

During an Al Hilal training session, Jorge Jesus stole the show by participating in a lively game with one of his players. The former Flamengo coach showed his talent by playing catch-up with Arab player Yasser Al-Shahrani. In a relaxed moment, Jesus compared his control of the ball to that of Neymar Jr., a player from Al Hilal, although the comment was not understood in Portuguese by the player.

With his impressive control of the ball, Jorge Jesus he juggled and commented: “It looks like Neymar”, while executing the embaixadinhas. All around, players watched the coach's performance with interest. On social media, Al Hilal took the opportunity to share the video, which quickly gained popularity, accumulating 139,000 likes on Instagram alone. See the video here.

Neymar Jr., who is known as his talent, he is familiar with Jorge Jesus, as he plays for Al Hilal. However, Neymar is recovering from a knee injury suffered following Brazil's 2-0 defeat to Uruguay in October 2023. He suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, a similar injury to Pedro's in the Flamengo, who should only return to the field in 2025. Neymar is still in a long recovery process and should return to the field in next month.

Jorge Jesus is one of the greatest coaches in the history of Flamengo, winning five titles, Libertadores, Brasileiro, Supercopa do Brasil, Recopa and Campionato Carioca, in just over a year at the club and boasting the mark of having more cups than defeats at Rubro-Negro. At Al Hilal, JJ recently reached the same milestone at the Arab club.