Flamengo Fails to Reach G-4 After Losing to Figueirense

By Georgia Grimond, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A disappointing 3-0 defeat of Rio home team Flamengo on Wednesday night (October 14th) has allowed Florianópolis’s Figueirense to climb three positions in the Campeonato Brasileiro competition, clearing themselves of the relegation zone. Flamengo, who wanted to climb the ladder and to be in one of the top G-4 positions, remains in seventh place in Brasileirão Série A table.

Playing at Orlando Scarpelli in Florianópolis, the Carioca team put in a lackluster performance, and with two goals from Figueirense’s Clayton and one from Dudu, failed put any balls in the back of the net. Figueirense finished up in fifteenth position, with 34 points.

“There was a difference of attitude, team spirit, posture. Today Flamengo was no shadow of what it was, for example, against Joinville. It is a question of needing time to work. We’ve been here less than two months, we had some good games, very good, but the team today was really unrecognizable. It was a night to forget,” said Flamengo coach Oswaldo de Oliveira after the game.

The team, however, benefitted from the victory of fellow Cariocas, Fluminense. Playing against São Paulo on Wednesday night at home at the Maracanã, Fluminense triumphed in a 2-0 win.

With goals from Fred and Marcos Júnior, the locals finished up in eleventh position in the table with forty points. The Paulistas remain in fifth place with 46 points.

It was Fluminense’s twelfth victory in the competition. In the next round, they will play against Belo Horizonte team, Cruzeiro, at the Mineirão on Sunday Octobter 18th. On the same day Flamengo will take on Internacional at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio.