Palmeiras’ next appointment is scheduled for Tuesday. At 9:30 pm, Abel Ferreira’s team visits Grêmio, in Porto Alegre
Palmeiras had a melancholic farewell to Allianz Parque this season. This Saturday, the Alviverde team played an apathetic, uncreative game and were not able to overcome Fluminense in the 35th round of the Brazilian Championship. Abel Ferreira’s team reaches its fourth game without a win, three in a row without scoring goals.
Palmeiras’ declining football at a key moment in the season is worrying given the possibility of ending another year without titles. Even the Flaco-Roque duo stopped working. How was the team able to destroy so quickly what took months to build? There was a loss of athletes due to being called up in decisive rounds, but the team has resources and a reserve bench capable of promoting better football. Currently, what we see is a team that has problems even shooting at goal and abuses aerial balls, throws and individualism.
The result leaves Palmeiras four points behind leader Flamengo with three rounds remaining. The alviverde team has 70 points. Fluminense has 55 and is stuck in sixth place, very close to guaranteeing a place in the next Libertadores.
Palmeiras’ next appointment is scheduled for Tuesday. At 9:30 pm, Abel Ferreira’s team visits Grêmio, in Porto Alegre. Fluminense, in turn, hosts São Paulo, at Maracanã, on Thursday, at 8:30 pm.
Palmeiras started with some scares from Fluminense. Anxiously, the white team did not choose the best ways to attack and suffered mainly on the left side of the defense.
The biggest difficulty for the home team was finishing. The ball was moving through the middle and at the edge of the area, but no one could be found to shoot at goal. Palmeiras’ first dangerous conclusion came just after 37 minutes with Flaco López.
Disappointingly, Palmeiras was once again a team with little creativity and repertoire, saw Fluminense have a more consistent performance in the first half and came out on top with a goalless draw.
Upon returning from the break, Abel, in order to give greater mobility to the Alviverde midfield, gave up a midfielder and replaced Raphael Veiga in Aníbal Moreno’s place. In fact, Palmeiras showed a relative improvement. Still, Fluminense was dangerous. Canobbio hit the post with a cross shot from outside the area.
Vitor Roque and Flaco López were still trying to make Palmeiras grow in the match, but there were a lot of complications in setting up the attacks. Abel was not bold either and preferred conservatism.
In the final minutes, Palmeiras improvised a blitz, with many aerial balls in search of the winning goal. But it was of no use and the score remained 0-0 until the final whistle.
