After dueling in the Round of 16 of the South American Cup, Chapecoense and Flamengo face again this Sunday, October 15. This time the match is worth the twenty-eighth round of the Brazilian Championship in its 2018 season. It will be held from 17h (Brasília time) at the Condá Arena in Chapecó.

Chapecoense’s recent performance

The team from Santa Catarina had another club from Rio de Janeiro as a rival on the 27th round. On the night of Wednesday, October 10, they took advantage against Botafogo in Rio de Janeiro, but ended up taking the turn in a bad way. The goal of victory by 2 to 1 of alvinegro was marked in the 50 minutes of the second half.
Even though they parked in the 32 points (nine wins, five draws and 13 losses), Chape was able to at least stay out of the relegation zone. He completed the twenty-seventh round in the 13th position. The advantage for Sao Paulo, who closed the day in seventeenth, the first in the region of sticking, however, is small, only one point.
It was not the first time that the Santa Catarina team saw points disappear in the second finals of the game. Against Fluminense, in the first round, took the tie, 3 to 3, in Rio de Janeiro, at 47 minutes of the final stage. Even at home he has stopped punctuating this situation. The 1-0 loss to Corinthians was set with a goal scored by J in the 45th minute of the second half.
The players almost unanimously blame the inattentiveness for the chances they offered to rivals shortly before the closing of the matches and promise greater concentration in the next games. However, there is reason to suspect this possibility. The club lives in a climate of great instability. More than twenty players from the cast will have their contracts closed by the end of the year and there is still no position regarding the renewal of the commitments. After all, without having the definition if it is going to compete in Series A or Series B next season, Chape does not know what budget will be available to invest.

The current form of Flamengo

Money has not been a problem for Flamengo. The red-black has opened the safes for contracting reinforcements. However, the results within the four lines have been disappointing. The most recent of them was the tie against Fluminense, by 1 to 1, in the classic played on Thursday, October 12, in Maracanã.
Equality in games with such a degree of rivalry can not even be considered a stumbling block. However, Flamengo dominated for most of the match and was not able to turn that advantage into goals, wasting a lot of chances to turn the score. To make the crowd even worse, the goal in favor of Fluminense was signaled by the red-black right-back Pará, against.
For the match, coach Reinaldo Rueda had to manage some problems that will not have this Sunday. Striker Paolo Guerrero and left-back Trauco, for example, could not be scaled from the start. They came back very worn out for the match that the Peruvian team made on the night of Tuesday, October 10, against Colombia, for the South American qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Faced with Chapecoense, it is quite likely that Guerrero will be scaled from the start, since he is the absolute starter of the team. Trauco also has the conditions for this. However, it will depend on the coach’s analysis. Rueda often prefers to climb options that guarantee better marking in the sector instead of a very supportive athlete, as is the case of the Peruvian, and leave loopholes for the counterattack.
Although he does not have to deal with these limitations on Sunday’s journey, Rueda has to prepare for the repetition of this situation. As the Peruvians drew 1-1 with Colombia, they qualified to play in the play-offs against New Zealand, the pair could lose the team for up to four rounds in the Brasileirão and even in one of the matches against Fluminense quarterfinals of the South American Cup.
This problem, however, is to be administered later. At the moment, the greatest indefinition in relation to midfielder Diego. The athlete suffered a muscle injury that kept him off the field for almost two weeks. He was released to resume the most intense physical training on the eve of the classic against Fluminense. It did not, however, show sufficient improvement so that it could be scaled. He should be submitted to the new evaluation before departure in Chapecoense and has chances of being related to the game.

History of the bouts between Chapecoense and Flamengo

The red-blacks have a wide advantage in the clashes with Chapecoense by Brasileirão. There were five wins in seven games. Chape won once and there was a draw. In the first round, Flamengo thrashed 5-1. The teams also met in the Round of 16 of the South American Cup in the current season. The team from Rio eliminated Catarinense.