Madureira and Fluminense will face off against the tricolors this Sunday, at 6 pm (Brasília time), for the third round of the Carioca Championship. The match will take place at the Kleber Andrade stadium, in Cariacica (ES). With Bangu’s victory over Portuguesa-RJ last Saturday, Tricolor Carioca dropped to third place in the State, with six points and two games less, while Suburbano appears in eighth place, with two points.
Madureira has been giving work to the big ones in Rio. The team has already faced Vasco and Flamengo in the beginning of the championship and is undefeated. There were two draws and no goal was conceded.
Felipe Arantes has two debutants for the match soon: defender Maurício and midfielder Rafinha. Of the 12 hired by the club, the tendency is that half are starters: in addition to the two already mentioned, goalkeeper Dida, left-back Bryan and midfielders Banguelê and Matheus Lira.
Diniz will continue to rotate the team, as part of an extended pre-season schedule. The coach this time listed the players considered in the starting lineup and should repeat almost the entire lineup of the debut against Resende, except for André, who stayed in Rio de Janeiro to take care of the son who was born in the last few days. Of the reinforcements hired, Keno, Giovanni and Lima traveled, and the number 45 could inherit the place in the team. And some of the kids who came up from Copinha were also listed.
Why bet on Madureira?
The question here should be, in fact, “why bet on a draw”, since that must be the strategy of Tricolor Suburbano, repeating the game plan that resulted in the 0-0 against Fla, also in Cariacica, on Wednesday ( 18). On that occasion, the team led by Felipe Arantes prepared a very well-organized streak and left Fla exchanging passes (66% of ball possession for the favorite), but without space to invade the area and create clear goalscoring chances. It worked, and everything leads to believe that the boss will try to repeat the dose on Sunday. Just don’t expect Madureira to be very present in the attack: the team has two 0-0 draws at the start of the campaign.
Why bet on Fluminense?
If Madureira already held a mix of Vasco and Flamengo’s main team, what will Fluminense do to not repeat their rivals? Simple: by having a more consolidated squad and a more integrated team, Tricolor das Laranjeiras has a greater chance of finding the way to the goal against such a closed defense. Fernando Diniz is gradually testing his squad for 2023 and evaluating new game alternatives, but his philosophy and the backbone of the team remain unchanged. It is possible that Diniz saves one or another athlete, but the tendency is for a strong team in Cariacica, in search of maintaining 100% performance.
