Lucas: Flamengo clash is a "big final", calls São Paulo fans to Vila | OneFootball

São Paulo emerged victorious in their clash with Vasco on Sunday night, during the 31st round of the Brazilian Championship. The Tricolor team remains focused on their Rio rivals and now turns their attention to Flamengo, their next opponent. Lucas Moura, who scored the first goal at São Januário, is treating the match as a “grand final” and called on the fans to attend the match at Vila Belmiro, which will host the game.

“Without a doubt, it will be a grand final for us. We’re going to face one of the best teams in the country, in the continent, which is Flamengo. We’re going to prepare well, approach this game as a grand final, which it truly is, so we can add more points and achieve our goals,” he said.

Lucas calls on fans for São Paulo vs Flamengo

One of the leaders of the squad, Lucas Moura called on the fans to attend the match at Vila Belmiro, in Santos. This season, Tricolor will play two matches as visitors at the home of their Baixada Santista rivals: against Flamengo and Red Bull Bragantino.

“Of course we’d prefer to play at Morumbi, which is our home, where we’re used to, but it is what it is. We understand the agreements that have been made and now we ask the fans to show up and make Vila a place where we feel at home and comfortable to play there and put on a great match. That’s what we hope for,” he said.

Why is the game at Vila Belmiro?

São Paulo’s stadium, Morumbis, has a busy schedule of concerts at the end of the year, making it impossible to host Tricolor’s matches. Imagine Dragons, Linkin Park, and Dualipa will perform at the stadium between October 31 and November 15.

Holding the matches in Baixada Santista is part of an agreement made with Santos for a ‘stadium swap’. The agreement provides for three Peixe matches at Morumbis and three Tricolor matches at Vila Belmiro.

Santos, for example, has already played two of the three matches at Morumbis as stipulated in the agreement. The Alvinegro Praiano brought their matches against Juventude and Vasco, both for the Brasileirão, to the capital of São Paulo.

São Paulo gains confidence with victory over Vasco

With the win, São Paulo reached eighth place, with 44 points, just four points away from the G6 of the Brazilian Championship. Thus, Tricolor gains confidence for the remainder of the season as they try to achieve their goal of qualifying for the next edition of the Libertadores. Lucas analyzed the victory and looked ahead.

“It was a game that required a lot of effort. We knew it would be like that. A team that is in a very good moment, that plays with movement and possession. That demands a lot of focus, a lot of effort from our team: running a lot, working hard on defense, everyone helping each other, and that’s what we did. We were rewarded with this win, I think it was deserved. We managed to close down the spaces, not let them have too many chances, and took advantage of our opportunities. It was a tough, well-played match and we deservedly came away with the win,” he said.

“Every game is important, but today we knew there was something extra, because it was a direct rival. Losing today would have made it difficult to reach our goal. It’s still tough, but now we’re closer. We have to treat it as seven finals, but I like to take it game by game. We beat Bahia, beat Vasco, both away. Next up is Flamengo, we’ll prepare to get points and after seven games we’ll see what happens,” he concluded.

Next São Paulo match

São Paulo vs Flamengo Competition: Brazilian Championship (32nd round) Date and time: November 5, 2025 (Wednesday), at 9:30 p.m. (Brasília time) Venue: Vila Belmiro, in Santos (SP)

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.