Dorival Jr mocks FPF over fixture list: "Thanks for your common sense"

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Central do Timão

·26. Februar 2026

Dorival Jr mocks FPF over fixture list: "Thanks for your common sense"

By Henrique Vigliotti Silvestre/Editorial Team of Central do Timão

Corinthians drew 1-1 against Cruzeiro at Mineirão in the fourth round of the 2026 Brazilian Championship, and after the match, coach Dorival Jr held a press conference to talk about the match and especially about the exhausting sequence the team has been experiencing.

Regarding the match, the coach praised the team's comeback despite a lackluster first half, as he himself reported: “A somewhat unstable first half and a better second half, deserving the result we had.”

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Photo: Henrique Vigliotti/ Central do Timão

When talking about the schedule, Dorival Jr heavily criticized the São Paulo Football Federation for the decision to schedule Novorizontino vs Corinthians on Saturday (28th), with less than 72 hours of rest: “Thank you for the common sense they had, right? Both us and Novorizontino playing a match now and having to play again two and a half days later, making a trip, arriving in São Paulo in the early hours today. Then having another trip to Rio Preto, Novo Horizonte, anyway… A long journey for a decisive match. I think we have to thank the sensitivity of those who scheduled all this so that we could be back on the field again.”

The pace of play and intensity were also complaints made by the coach: “Today it’s been 42 days since our return, 14 matches played, and among all these matches, decisive games, derbies, important Brazilian Championship games. No one is a magician, no one is a machine to withstand all this. That’s why we need to keep improving the team at every moment, I mean physically, adjusting each lineup according to the needs of each match and believing that this team can give a very good response, as it did today.”

Corinthians will face another challenge ahead as they play Novorizontino this Saturday (28th), at 8:30 PM (Brasília time), away from home, in a match that could take Timão to their second consecutive Paulistão final.

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