NEYMAR IS PRESENTED AT AL-HILAL WITH A DRONES SHOW AND MEETS JORGE JESUS

On Thursday night (19), Flamengo hosted Peñarol at Maracanã for the first leg of the quarter-finals of the Copa Libertadores da América and came out with an unfavorable result. In front of more than 64 thousand fans, the team led by Tite had several opportunities, but failed to score.

The Uruguayan team took advantage of one of the few chances and, with a goal from Cabrera, secured a 1-0 victory. Now, Mengão will need to reverse the deficit in the second leg, scheduled for next Thursday- fair (26), in Montevideo.

This Thursday's defeat puts the Rio team in a delicate situation. To guarantee qualification to the semi-finals, Mais Querido will need to win by two goals at the Campeón del Siglo Stadium. A simple victory will take the decision to penalties, while any other score guarantees Peñarol's place. The result was even more painful for the club, as Flamengo has not lost at Maracanã in Libertadores competitions since 2019, also to Peñarol.

The return game is full of expectations, mainly due to the historic rivalry between the two teams in the South American competition. The winner of this duel will face, in the semifinals, the winner of the clash between Botafogo and São Paulo. On the other side of the bracket, there are River Plate (Argentina), Colo-Colo (Chile), Fluminense and Atlético-MG, which makes the path to the final even more competitive.

FLAMENGO AND PEÑAROL RETURN TO THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Before the decisive match for the Libertadores, both teams have commitments for their national leagues. CRF travels to Porto Alegre to face Grêmio, next Sunday (22), at 6:30 pm, for the Brazilian Championship. Peñarol faces Cerro, also on Sunday, at 7pm, away from home, in the Clausura of the Uruguayan Championship.

Flamengo entered the field on Thursday night. With a packed Maracanã, Tite's men played the first match of the Libertadores quarter-finals against Peñarol (URU). The objective was to play a good game and take an advantage for the return game, next week. In this sense, the Rio team ended up disappointing the more than 60 thousand paying guests at the stadium and lost 1-0, in one of the team's worst matches of the year.

Summary

Peñarol It started well and Peñarol soon showed that it would play on the red and black error. Therefore, the Uruguayans opened the scoring after 12 minutes, with Cabrera, in a counterattack. Soon after, Flamengo responded with Plata's header hitting the post. But the red and black team had difficulty creating chances. In the final stretch of the first half, Flamengo grew and had great opportunities to draw. Bruno Henrique, alone, headed over goalkeeper Aguerre, who also made a great save from Arrascaeta's shot.

In the second half, Flamengo came back even better, but came up against the strong Uruguayan marking and the lack of creativity to reach the opponent's goal. Tite moved the sides, which gave Flamengo more speed, however, it had little effect due to a terrible night from Arrascaeta and De la Cruz. As a result, the result did not change and now Flamengo needs to reverse the situation away from home next week.

What now?

With the result, Flamengo will need to win by at least two goals to guarantee one of the places in the Libertadores semi-finals. The match takes place in Uruguay, next Thursday. However, Fla needs to turn the key, because there is a Brazilian Championship game to play on the weekend. Tite's men will face Grêmio, away from home, next Sunday, at 6:30 pm;

At 37 years old, goalkeeper Paulo Victor was announced last Friday (13) as a new reinforcement of Al-Rayyan, from Qatar. Previously, he played for Al-Ettifaq, in Saudi Arabia, where striker Vitinho also plays. Hired last week, Paulo Victor has already made his debut by saving a penalty in the Asian Champions League. Check out.

In the match against Al-Hilal, led by Jorge Jesus, Paulo Victor saved Serbian striker Mitrovic's shot, but were unable to prevent Al-Rayyan's 3-1 defeat. The game took place on Tuesday afternoon (17), at 1 pm (Brasília time). The former Flamengo goalkeeper's contract with the Qatari team runs until the end of next season. Before his time in Saudi football, PV also had a spell at Marítimo, in Portugal.

Paulo Victor arrived against Flamengo at the age of 17, in 2004. He remained at the base until 2009, during which time he was the fourth goalkeeper in the red squad -black in winning the Brazilian Championship. In 2010, he was loaned to América-RJ and, upon returning to Mais Querido, he began to have more opportunities in 2012.

From 2012 to 2016, Paulo Victor was a starter at various times, but lost space with the arrival of Alex Muralha. During his time at Grêmio, where he arrived in 2017, he only took over as a starter in the 2019 season. That year, he became a hero by saving three penalties in the Gaúchão final against Internacional, although he was also the goalkeeper who conceded the five goals in the 5-0 defeat to Flamengo in the Libertadores.