By Gustavo Castilho
Santos, Athletico-PR, and Flamengo enter the field later on today for the first games of the competition.
Time to leave the group stage behind and turn the key to the tournament’s knockout phase. The most coveted competition in America has six Brazilians competing for the top of the continent. In search of the second consecutive title, Flamengo faces Racing (ARG), in Argentina. The rubro negro has the return of Gabigol, and should go to the field with a good part of the 2019 championship-winning team. Rodrigo Caio and Pedro are still out. On the Racing side, the list of absences is long. Injuries and players contaminated by Covid-19 are the main reasons for the absence. The ball will roll at 9:30 pm, Brasília time.
Earlier, at 19h15, it is Santos and Athletico-PR time to enter the field. The team from the Vila faces LDU (EQU), in Ecuador. Santos still has a lot of absences. In today’s match, there will be 12, most of them due to injury. Coach Cuca remains at rest after recovering from Covid-19. Despite this, the team has the return of Lucas Veríssimo, Soteldo, and Diego Pituca. LDU, on the other hand, has five absences for the home match.
Athletico receives the River Plate (ARG), in Curitiba. Like the other teams, the Paraná team also has a wide list of absences due to Covid-19. Of the starting team, six players will not step on the field. On the other side, the River comes with maximum strength without absences.
Tomorrow the ball rolls for Internacional and Palmeiras. The Colorado receives Boca Junior (ARG), in Porto Alegre; Alviverde goes to Ecuador to face Delfín. Still on Wednesday, Libertad (PAR) faces Jorge Wilstermann (BOL) and Independiente del Valle (EQU) hosts Nacional (URU). On Thursday, Grêmio will go to Paraguay to face Guaraní.
