Did you see this one? President of Fluminense comes out in defense of Flamengo in a press conference - understand

The Peñarol team arrived in Rio de Janeiro in the early hours of Wednesday (18) for the game against Flamengo in the Libertadores. Before the clash at Maracanã, defender Guzmán Rodríguez sent a message to Mais Querido and highlighted the strength of the Uruguayans.

“We are doing quite well collectively and individually”, said defender Guzmán Rodríguez, to be asked about Peñarol's moment in the season. 

It is worth mentioning that Peñarol had a setback upon arrival in Rio de Janeiro. This is because the Uruguayan flight was scheduled to arrive at 7pm this past Tuesday (17). However, with delay, the players disembarked at the end of the day.

“The plan was to arrive two days early precisely for this reason, to have time to rest”, said Ignacio Ruglio, president of the Montevideo team.< /p>

FOCUS ON THE CONFRONT

Flamengo will hold its last training session this Wednesday (18) before facing Peñarol on Thursday (19). The teams enter the field at 7pm, at Maracanã, for the first game of the Libertadores quarter-finals.

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.

Palmeiras formalized a complaint with the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) after the match against Flamengo, valid for the round of 16 of the Copa do Brasil. The board of directors of the São Paulo club is dissatisfied with the performance of referee Anderson Daronco, accusing him of being complacent with the "wax" made by opposing players and the excessive number of fouls awarded during the game.

One study conducted by Palmeiras, presented to CBF, points out that the game against Flamengo was the one with the least amount of ball rolling among all the matches in the round of 16 of the competition. According to the data collected, the ball was in play for just 45 minutes and 17 seconds. On the other hand, the dead ball time was 59 minutes and 11 seconds, which represents a significant difference and an active game time much lower than expected in a professional football match.

DARONCO ENTER THE SIGHTS DA CBF 

The dissatisfaction of Palmeiras It is not limited to the ball rolling time. Another point raised by the club is the high number of stoppages during the game. In total, there were 108 interruptions whistled by referee Anderson Daronco. For Palmeiras, many of these stoppages were unnecessary and broke the rhythm of the match, favoring the opposing team. The club's board and technical committee believe that the referee allowed Flamengo to adopt an anti-game stance, interrupting the flow of the match with fouls and delaying the resumption of play.

The São Paulo club argues that these situations harmed the progress of the game and, consequently, his team, which tried to impose a more intense and offensive rhythm. Palmeiras' complaint is that the referee should have been more strict with the wax and more judicious in marking fouls. According to the board, Daronco's attitude contributed to the game becoming truncated, making it difficult to create plays and the flow of the match.