With his stay on track, Carpini remains cautious about qualifying for the South American Championship

Vitória went to Nilton Santos and achieved a heroic 1-1 draw against the then leader of the Brazilian Championship. With the point added against Botafogo on Saturday night (23), Leão reached 42 in the competition, increasing the probability of remaining in the first division. After the end of the match, coach Thiago Carpini chose to remain cautious about a possible classification for the Copa Sudamericana.

“We need to focus on the next games, at home, so that we can stay there and be able to talk about bigger things. (…) Permanence is our first objective. We have a difficult game at home against Fortaleza, a regional classic. We know how difficult it will be, but we need to add points to guarantee the score that keeps us in Series A. Then we think about bigger things in the competition”, began the press conference.

With three games to play in Series A, Leão can still reach 54 points if they win the remaining matches. According to the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), the score would leave Vitória with a 100% probability of going to the international competition. Still according to the college’s calculations, the Bahian club has a 62% chance of going to the South American Championship. Data is released each round.

Probability does not change the coach’s opinion. According to the Leão commander, the current score does not offer security so that the squad can dream of a different objective of escaping the second division. Therefore, Carpini’s speech should only change when the chances of finishing the competition in the Z-4 ​​are zero.

With the game proposal defined as defending and exploiting counterattacks, Vitória faced Alvinegro with five defenders on the field. In the 20th minute of the first half, Carpini’s strategy paid off with Alerrandro’s goal to open the scoring at Nilton Santos. Despite the solid defense in the match, the red and blacks suffered a draw with an own goal from Wagner Leonardo at the end of the game.

Regarding the team’s performance against one of the Libertadores finalists, the Leão commander praised the performance shown on the field, in accordance with what the coach proposed. “We were a fierce, committed team. We know how difficult it is to play here at Engenhão. We had a very intelligent stance, we defended ourselves well without failing to counterattack. In the second half this became more difficult, but their volume was mostly in crosses, without much effectiveness. The equalizer came out of misfortune,” he said.

With 27 points gained in 16 games, Vitória owns one of the 10 best campaigns in the second round, with eight wins, five draws and five defeats. Asked about the team’s ‘turnaround’, Carpini highlighted the time to work and smooth out the rough edges.

“When you win or lose, defeats are also important, continuity, sequence, group acceptance. There were many good things. I highlight the patience we had, we cannot, after the first defeat, think that everything is wrong and start again. Vitória had that patience. We practically reformulated the squad as the championship progressed. Mentally, we recovered a lot of players too”, he gave the message.

After the draw against Botafogo, Leão will have a week before returning to Barradão to face Fortaleza, next Sunday (1), starting at 6:30 pm.