O Fluminense reaches the semi-finals on a high Brazilian Cup and coach Luís Zubeldía already has an idea of the team that will take the field. On Thursday (11), at Maracanã, at 8pm (Brasília time), Tricolor begins to decide its fate against Vasco.
For the duel, Zubeldía will not have one of the pillars of his team: Canobbio. The Uruguayan is suspended from the first clash and is an important casualty for the Argentine coach. However, he is already thinking about the options, but still prefers mystery.
“On Monday we will start thinking about the next game. The Brasileirão didn’t give us time to think about the game. We had to go game by game. We know the importance of the Copa do Brasil game, it’s a semi-final, there isn’t much margin. We didn’t have a margin in the Brasileirão either, because one thing leads to another. A good performance makes your goals become bigger”, he commented.
Regarding , who is coming off good performances, being Canobbio’s replacement in the match, Zubeldía preferred to mislead so as not to help his rival.
“In principle, for us to reach the Brasileirão in the last round with the responsibility of winning was not easy, it was a difficult situation. Because even a draw would have left us out of the G5. The last round, against a great team, a great coach. Having this performance was very valuable. A draw would leave us out and classify Botafogo. We did well. One of them (solution) could be Soteldo in Canobbio’s place. The plan is to rest, take advantage of the classification and turn the page to get to 180 minutes,” he said.
And in the middle?
Another question that the coach will have for the classic is whether to cast Hércules or Nonato. The first has been feeling pain in the last few games and that’s why he was on the bench against Grêmio and Bahia. However, he is the holder of the position.
“It’s another issue that we have to evaluate. As I said to your colleague, it’s difficult now to make decisions for Thursday. Very difficult. We couldn’t project. There were many games that we had been talking about: the next game is the most important. Because our performance made us raise the level to try for a direct place. We didn’t have time to look”, he stated.
O by 2 to 0. The result guaranteed the Rio team in 5th place and qualified for the group stage of the Copa Libertadores next year.
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