Abel aide blasts VAR but admits poor Palmeiras display: ‘No quality’

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·10 May 2026

Abel aide blasts VAR but admits poor Palmeiras display: ‘No quality’

After Palmeiras football director Anderson Barros complained about the refereeing in the match between Palmeiras and Remo, it was assistant coach João Martins’ turn to also criticize Verdão’s disallowed goal in the final minutes of the game.

In the 49th minute, Bruno Fuchs found the net and scored what would have been the winner for Verdão. The goal, however, was ruled out after referee Rodrigo Rafael Klein reviewed it on VAR. In the play, after a corner kick, Flaco López went up to challenge for the ball. It hit the Argentine’s hand and fell to Fuchs, who fired it into the net.

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– What was missing was for VAR not to make things up, not to be incompetent at its job, and to follow the rules of the game. If it had followed the rules, everything would have been right in the end. We move on.

The coach, however, said Palmeiras were ‘incompetent’ when it came to scoring from the chances they had. While lamenting the goal conceded in the first minute of the match, he said the team created enough chances to win but failed to hit the target.

– When we concede a goal, we need extra energy. We managed to create chances in the first half to go into the break ahead, but we weren’t clinical. We only scored one goal. – In the second half we couldn’t find space, then came the red card, we had chances, we scored, and what we did didn’t count. We tried, but we lacked efficiency and quality.

Finally, he spoke about the delay to the match, which had been scheduled for 4 p.m. and began at 5:50 p.m.

– There are things that happen and we have to adapt. They are different situations. We were told yesterday that scheduling a match at that time was asking for this to happen. Whoever made that schedule was asking for this to happen.

What now?

Palmeiras now turn their attention to the Copa do Brasil. After beating Jacuipense 3-0 in the first leg at Allianz Parque, Verdão face the Bahia side again in the return leg this Wednesday (13) at 9:30 p.m. (Brasília time). The match will be played in Londrina.

In the Brazilian Championship, their next match will be on Saturday (16) against Cruzeiro at Arena Barueri.

With the result, Palmeiras remain top of the table with 34 points from 15 matches — followed by Flamengo with 27, but having played two fewer games. Remo are 19th with 12 points.

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