Three days after beating Fluminense 3-0 to reach the Brazilian Cup final, Corinthians, owned by Portuguese coach Vitor Pereira, fell to America Mineiro (0-1) in Belo Horizonte, in the 27th round of Brazil. The coach once again lamented that the changes he made in the eleven due to fatigue weakened the team.
“In the first half we didn’t control the game, the opponent was stronger, we didn’t get the ball, we had a lot of difficulties. We weren’t at our level. In the second half, we made changes, we balanced the game, we didn’t play well, but it was more balanced. And we conceded a target in a series of situations that should not have happened, but this happened,” he explained.
“The defeat is a mirror because we played a very difficult match three days ago, we had to keep the players, because we took a risk. Today we could not give the answer at the height of the match to win,” he said.
Fabio Santos, Gil and Balbuena were saved, Wagner remained on the bench and Renato Augusto, Yuri Alberto, Duqueros and Fausto Vera entered only the second half. As for Cantelo, who was absent, a larger explanation for the “punishment” is: “Do you know why Cantillo didn’t come? I had a conversation with him and he has to improve his training behavior, to be more competitive. You have to fight for your space. If you are more competitive, improve your physical indicators, you will have opportunities.”
