Rafael rues defeat, says result unfair on São Paulo in derby | OneFootball

São Paulo ended up defeated by Palmeiras this Saturday, 3-1, in a classic match for the Campeonato Paulista. Tricolor’s captain and goalkeeper, Rafael, believes the score does not reflect what happened in the game and stated that the Choque-Rei was decided by “details.” He also praised the team’s attitude despite the setback and remains confident about qualifying for the next phase of the tournament.

“I think the biggest impact was that we played a match that doesn’t match the result. In our best moments on the field, we ended up conceding goals. They had three or four counterattacks and were fortunate, but our attitude was different. We controlled the game well, we know classics are tough matches and this one was decided by details, they were luckier than us in finishing,” he told TNT Sports.

“It’s worth highlighting the attitude we showed on the field, even though it’s tough to say this after a defeat we didn’t want to suffer. The team held up well, we managed to play our football and I think that’s the way forward. Things won’t improve overnight, but we’re working on it. We’ll look to improve and fight for qualification in the next three games,” he added.

Turbulent moment

Rafael also commented on the club’s political situation and said that it does impact the players, despite their efforts to stay shielded from it.

“The moment the club is going through affects all areas. We try to shield ourselves from it to focus only on football and hope to have more peace of mind for that. It’s a rebuilding phase, it won’t be easy. Maybe it will be a very difficult year for São Paulo because we’ll have to rebuild from the top, which is the president. But São Paulo has professionals who want to be here and love this badge, the fans won’t abandon us and we’ll do our best,” he concluded.

Next match

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