Since Flamengo were already first, we don't have to wait for their match to know the next round match up... Benfica upset Bayern 1x0, which means Benfica take first. Flamengo will face Bayern! We do have to wait for tonight's matches to know who well face Benfica. Obviously Chelsea are favorites, but Esperance will take second if they get the upset win.
That is a tough break for Flamengo . Bayern and then possibly PSG . At one point it looked like it was gonna be Benfica and then possibly Botafogo in the QF . That path would have made making to the SF pretty achievable . The money being dished after each round is pretty considerate so making to a SF would be great financially speaking . I am not confident we will get past Botafogo . At least Abel admitted he screwed up tactically against Miami . But we have too many players underperforming by a lot and now lost Murilo and probably Anibal who played well in the first match . Paulinho’s situation is frustrating … paying decent money for him and turning out that he might be bichado :
Yep, tough break getting Bayern, but I'll hope for a good game, win or lose. We can certainly win, but I'd make us favorites against Benfica, against Bayern, no question we're underdogs. Ended the group stage with a draw against LA, and LA scored first, late, but we scored just two minutes later. It was definitely a game played at a different pace, and it opened up more in the second half. Pedro looked a little better but still off on some touches. We hit the post 4 times, but the best chance was wasted by Luis Araújo, who was face to face with Lloris and instead passed the ball to Pedro who was being closed down by a defender. I would imagine that the match against Bayern will be played with our strongest possible line-up, save injuries. de la Cruz is not available sue to injury, but everyone else is available as the players with yellow cards were spared today (Bruno Henrique came in late but did not get a yellow). Palmeiras x Botafogo is the first match of the knockout round. 12pm on Saturday. Flamengo x Bayern is 4pm on Sunday. Tomorrow we find out if Fluminense gets through and if they play on Monday or Tuesday.
Fluminense took second place today with a draw, as Borussia won to move into first place. This puts Fluminense on the Palmeiras x Botafogo side of the bracket. Everyone is talking about how that side is "accessível" for the Brazilian teams, but you know who's really going to like it? Man City. Right now Man City are in second, but if they beat Juventus they will take first and be on the Fluminense side of the bracket for quarters and Palmeiras x Botafogo for semis. Of course, it would be extra funny if Man City did stay in second, putting them on the tough side of the bracket. It would also be something special if Man City faced Fluminense and somehow Fluminese pulled off the upset. That would blow people's minds. I see about a 0.01% chance of that... and I think that's generous. Fluminense's opponent will come from the Inter/River/Monterrey group playing now. Carlos Augusto on the bench, DiMarco and Bastoni starting today for the key game.
Well ... this City isn't really that City that beat Fluminense 2 years ago. Could happen. The conditions and context of this competition has also been a leveler.
City are definitely looking solid though. We'll see tomorrow against Juventus, but City have invested ahead of this tournament and are doing to underdogs what they usually do. It would be funny if Fluminense gets a rematch. But Fluminense will have to get through Inter for that to happen. Inter beat River 2x0 just now. River had two guys sent off and amazingly Acuna was not one of them. If you haven't seen the match, try and find some of that footage. He had to be restrained by his own team at the end. Borussia Dortmund will face Monterrey. The winner will face H1 vs. G2 winner, which could be Real Madrid, if they win their group tomorrow.
I see Fluminense's draw as a warning that it's only going to get more difficult from here, even as it's a good thing Fluminense had a clean sheet. I did see footage. That guy and the Dutch player had some bad blood in Qatar and apparently, the Argentines' trash talk after their PK shootout win wasn't well received by the Dutch players. This is not a national team competition, but Dumfries had his personal revenge. That was extremely embarrassing, that a player had to be brought down to the ground by his own teammates after an international tournament elimination. Some of these guys appear to have forgotten that they were not playing in their home country and just perhaps, refereeing in an official FIFA tournament match held in the United States might be less receptive to dramatic histrionics. Good for the four Brazilians to have advanced. Hopefully they will go very far in this tournament and hopefully, this is a good omen for the mata-mata stages of the 2025 Libertadores.
Juventus x Manchester City is still in progress and I haven't been watching closely, but I checked the rosters and noticed that Bremer is listed as available from the bench for the first time today. In the last match he was still listed as an injury absence.
Palmeiras x Botafogo in under an hour. But before that, I should look back at round 3 like I did for other rounds. Pepê got a goal for Porto to tie the game with Al Ahly, which saved them from falling to last place and guaranteed them a consolation of another million dollars for the draw, but he is reportedly on the transfer list for them. They are also going to fire their coach. Samu Lino was a late sub for Atletico in the win over Botafogo. They scored after he came on, but he was only on for 6 minutes plus added time. Marquinhos started for PSG against Seattle and played a solid 90 minutes. Beraldo did not play. Andrey Santos got his first Chelsea minutes against Esperance, just 22 minutes plus added time. Carlos Augusto did not start, as I mentioned on the day of the match, but he did get about 30 minutes at left-mid, relieving DiMarco. Got a yellow card, so he's pendurado for the Fluminense game. Cards reset if you don't get one in the round of 16 and make it to quarters. Yan Couto started for Dortmund against Ulsan. He got a solid rating, played 90 minutes, but on the other hand it was Dortmund's easiest match on paper. Mamelodi Sundowns has a couple of Brazilians I haven't mentioned since I'm focused on national team names, but pundits in Brazil have been praising them and wondering if they might attract the attention of a Brazilian team, particularly forward Lucas Ribeiro. Douglas Luiz did not play for Juventus in their 2x5 loss to Man City. Bremer was on the bench for the first time since his ACL injury but also did not play. On the other side, Savinho played 90 minutes, got an assist and a golaço worth watching if you haven't seen it yet. Vitor Reis was on the bench and did not play. Ederson gave up an awful goal for Juventus' first but didn't have much to do. He also recently stated he wants to stay at City. At the end of the PL season their was talk of him getting a Saudi offer, so that seems to have changed. Al Hilal made it to the second round. All three Brazilians started. Lodi and Malcom played most of the game and were subbed late. Lodi got a yellow so he's pendurado for the match against Man City. Marcos Leonardo played 90 minutes and got the second goal, in added time. And in the last match, Vini had a very solid game for Real. Should have scored his first chance, but it was a decent save. Then he scored in the 40th minute, a really well taken goal, and 4 minutes later had a beautiful assist for a Valverde goal. Worth watching. Rodrygo came in for Vini and got over 20 minutes of playing time. Militão and Endrick remain out injured.
@celito I hope you've recovered from the heart attack I'm sure you had when Fuchs and Weverton were fumbling for that later ball and Fuchs somehow managed not to get a hand on it. And that probably wasn't the only heart attack. Paulinho with a huge goal in many ways, including financially for Palmeiras, who make it all the way to the quarters. And as tedious as it might be to watch them, I genuinely think they could make the semis, if Abel figures out the right approach against Chelsea or Benfica. Good luck.
I thought Botafogo was gonna present more trouble . Tiredness might have played a role as they had tougher matches and had to fly from the west coast . But Abel also didn’t mess up the lineup today . I might make the trip for the QF
Chelsea 4x1 Benfica The good news for Palmeiras is that this game also went into OT, so Chelsea will be just as worn out as Palmeiras. But the quarter-final isn't until Friday, so a pretty big break until then. .Also, after 85 minutes the match was interrupted for a weather delay that lasted 110 minutes before the match could resume. Benfica tied the game after that and Chelsea scored their 3 next goals all in over time. Palmeiras can definitely beat this Chelsea, but it will take being efficient on counters and so far Brazilian teams haven't been particularly efficient with their chances. The good news is Palmeiras have already earned almost 40 million dollars from this tournament and a semi-final appearance would mean 21 more. The bad news for Palmeiras (and any other Brazilian team that advances) is that making it to the quarters means basically no break between the tournament and restarting the Brasileirão. Being eliminated in the quarters means playing your last game on July 4 or 5 and then the Brasileirão 13th round match on July 12.
Making things tougher we will have our CBs out due to injury (Murilo) and suspension (Gomez) and also Piquerez suspended. Vanderlan is terrible and I wonder if we can improvise Mayke there. Good news is that Chelsea will be missing Caicedo due to suspension.
Well, Bayern 4x2 Flamengo, it wasn't to be. I think the bottom line is what Filipe Luís said, there is an elite above the level that the top Brazilian teams compete at. Bayern is part of that and they took today's match seriously. Yes, the early goals we gave up were mistakes they took advantage of, but so were 3 and 4 and you expect the better team to take advantage of those mistakes. Flamengo did well overall to get 2 goals, to get back into it and to play their game, but some of the players were a step below the level of the match. Luiz Araújo in particular, though he did ok at times on offense, was the most obvious case when it came to handling pressure in our own half. Wesley I thought did really well overall. He had a shaky moment early, but the whole team did. But he defended well, recovered well and made offensive contributions. I think his price tag has gone up. The game also makes me think that if we had just a little more stability, better pitches and a better calendar, our top 3 or 4 teams could compete, when you consider how much the league has improved over the last decade, whether it's from the rest of the continent or Brazilians coming back.
Be proud of your team, Ombak. Flamengo destroyed Chelsea with complete justice, and Bayern Munich is one of the best teams in the world, and it took this game seriously, as you said. Your team will almost certainly win a title in 2025.
Biggest obstacle to potentially winning a title is the calendar, including this tournament, but I would be a little surprised if we didn't win one of the three big titles.
Pretty impressed with Flamengo's performance. Played toe to toe with Bayern in my view. Just really unlucky conceding those 2 early goals. The second one was a turnover in a dangerous spot but still unlucky for that shot to be deflected right into the corner. At 1 x 2 I thought Flamengo were gonna tie it up for sure. Even at 2 x 3 I thought they had a good chance as Flamengo looked stronger physically.
He's going to be huge for us, but losing Gérson will be too. I hope de la Cruz stays healthy now (he got a few minutes today). And I wonder who we might buy in the transfer window. We need a right-back since Wesley will also leave. I also think we need a midfielder for depth. So far we have only heard that Flamengo is looking for another forward who can play wide.
Fluminense with the upset over Inter. Well played and well deserved on the day. I thought this result was possible. Will likely face Man City.
I can hardly believe it. Fluminense 2x0 Inter Estou Renightizado! EDIT: My uncle, who was thinking of going to a quarter-final in Atlanta if Flamengo made it, texted me this morning before I even woke up, so I didn't read it properly. He and his wife made a last minute decision to drive to Charlotte for the match (he lives about 3 hours away, I'm 4 hours away from Charlotte). And he's a Flu fan, which I didn't even realize until he reminded me this past weekend. I guess that's the team he picked when he lived in Rio in the 70s. (Not surprising considering how good they were then).
Amazing result against the runner-up of the last CL, and who would've thought that Renato Portaluppi would've neutralized Internazionale. Out of the 8 quarterfinalists, 2 are Brazilians. One was eliminated by another Brazilian and the other by one of the most powerful soccer teams in the world. We Brasileiros have a lot to be proud of - many came to mock us due to the travails of our national team, but this tournament has shown that o Futebol Brasileiro is alive and well.
Al-Hilal just beat Man City 4x3 in overtime. Great game to watch. For Al-Hilal the goalkeeper Bounou was huge, but the Brazilians were solid too. Solid game by Renan Lodi. Makes you think if he kept his mouth shut he might be back on the national team radar. Maybe he still will be. EDIT: Watching the replay, Lodi put in a nice cross for the winning goal. But Malcom and Marcos Leonardo were huge. Marcos Leonardo got 2 goals and player of the match. Should have had an earlier second goal but he has no left foot so he forced a corner instead of shooting. He also did really well holding on to the ball with his back to goal. Malcom stretched the defense for 70 minutes before having to be subbed. He also earned a PK but was about 1 millimeter offside on the play so it was called back. Malcom was replaced by another Brazilian, youngster Kaio Cesar, who was decent but needs more experience. For City, Savinho was solid. Not spectacular, but incisive, made good decisions most of the time and dangerous. Ederson on the other hand, he didn't necessarily have a bad game, but he only made two saves, one late on a relatively tame shot, and I think the other one was the rebound that resulted in the winning goal. Not that he could have done much with that shot, but still, contrast that with Bounou, who had 10 saves, 7 from shots inside the box. And that means Fluminense gets to play Al Hilal. They can win, but I'd say Al Hilal are the better team. However, Al Hilal don't have a lot of depth (neither does Flu) and they played 120 exhausting minutes today. Who knows, anything could happen.