O Clássico Mineiro is always a huge fixture for the city of Belo Horizonte and its two football titans –Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro – and this game was no different. Local bragging rights aside, this match was of pivotal importance for both teams, who needed to claim maximum points to keep their contrasting hopes for the season alive. Naturally, this atmosphere, and the 43,000 fans packed into the Cruzeiro-blue drenched Mineirão, would only heighten the […]
Brazil kick off their Olympic campaign on Thursday, against South Africa in Brasília. Under the stewardship of Rogerio Michale, this U-23 side (with Renato Augusto, Fernando Prass and Neymar thrown in for good measure) offers the first clean break from the turgid Dunga era. Rogerio’s squad is top heavy in terms of talent, with Grêmio’s Luan, Santos’ Gabriel Barbosa, Palmeiras’ Gabriel Jesús and Neymar all set to feature heavily. Rogerio has all but confirmed that […]
After three months of largely uninteresting state league football mixed in with some Copa Libertadores fun, Brazil’s national league, the Brasileirão, makes its much anticipated return this weekend. Things are much different now than they were last December when the 2015 campaign concluded. Then, Corinthians were the deserved champions and looking like the best side in the recent history of South American football. Now, Timão has seen so many of the players that made that […]
With the slog that is the Brazilian state leagues finally behind us, the eyes of the country turn to the Brasileirão. The are story-lines aplenty, with Flamengo looking to return to relevance on the pitch, a heavily weakened Corinthians seeking to win back to back titles, and plenty of teams looking likely to make a run at the title. With those in mind, let’s take a look at the best and worst case scenarios of […]
An absorbing Copa Libertadores group phase has rattled by in a flash of power cuts, on field brawls, red cards, centre halves in goal, and matches played at severe altitude or in the middle of the Andean desert. Occasionally some football broke out too. Four of the five Brazilian clubs have progressed to the knockout rounds, with Copa do Brasil winners Palmeiras narrowly missing out. How did the Brazilian clubs fare? Who awaits them in […]
He is remembered mostly for one moment of brilliance; a flurry of step overs that turned defenders from actors to spectators before he proceeded to fire a ferocious shot into the roof of the net. Amantino Mancini’s goal against Lyon is a natural inclusion whenever a highlights reel of the best goals of the Champions League is compiled and that moment of genius has granted him immortality. That goal, however, is also Mancini’s curse. It […]
Though fiscal buffoonery remains very much part of the Brasileirão’s fabric, it’s fair to say that clubs are economically stronger than they were in the early part of the 2000s (for now). Generally speaking, the league features a mesh of players at either end of their career spectrum. Rising young bucks toil alongside more mature players that have returned home from Europe (or other far flung territories), for one last graze before they are […]
This preview of the 2015 Brazilian season was written by Anthony Wood (@FRfutebolAnt) and Luke Butler (@FRfutebolLuke), who are Brazilian football experts for the football data and analysis company, Football Radar. After a few long and arduous months of state championship football, the 2015 edition of Brazil’s premier league competition, the Brasileirão, kicks off this weekend. The league has seen eleven different teams crowned champions over the past two decades and this season looks set to be as competitive and unpredictable […]
Corinthians, São Paulo, Internacional, Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro all emerged from the group phase of the Copa Libertadores unscathed. Some qualified with greater ease than others, Tite’s Corinthians consummately sailed through the ‘group of death.’ In contrast, Galo, who really ought to fit their supporters with pacemakers as standard, qualified by the skin of their teeth. The main obstacle to a Brazilian club snafuing this year’s Libertadores comes mainly from Argentina, specifically Boca Juniors, […]
The Copa Libertadores group stages start this week and the five Brazilian clubs taking part will look to improve on the country’s rather dismal showing in 2014. There were no Brazilian clubs in the last four, which, given Brazil’s economic supremacy over their South American brethren, represents a severe underperformance. As a paradigm, that’s the rough equivalent of all Premier League and La Liga teams striking out of the Champions League before the semi-final stage. […]