Corinthians midfielder rues women's league runners-up, eyes Libertadores | OneFootball

By Fabio Luigi/Central do Timão Editorial Staff

Corinthians took the field on Saturday afternoon (3) to face São Paulo at Morumbis Stadium in the second leg of the Brazilian Women’s Championship final and were held to a 1-1 draw. Corinthians’ goal was scored by left-back Juliete. The result left Corinthians as runners-up, as they lost 3-2 on aggregate.

In an interview with the broadcast rights holders after the match, midfielder Duda Sampaio analyzed the game and lamented the missed chances in the Majestoso. Even so, the No. 27 believes the team leaves the tournament with its head held high.

“The detail we lacked was the goal. We had a lot of possession, but we couldn’t create clear chances. It’s a very bad scoreline, a very painful defeat for everything it means to be Corinthians, to play for Corinthians. But now we have to lift our heads. I have a FIFA international window now, but the Libertadores is also right around the corner. We can’t let this defeat change anything inside us. I think that, even though we lost, we worked hard, fought hard, and went all the way to the end. We go down with our heads held high in the sense that we tried to score until the very last play. Now it’s about preparing as much as possible for the Libertadores,” she began.

She later highlighted how much a defeat weighs when a team like Corinthians Women is always used to winning titles. As a reminder, the Brabas are the tournament’s biggest winners with seven titles won – 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

“The number of consecutive finals, the number of titles, all of that weighs heavily on the field. I really wanted that goal to come. It will definitely hurt a lot, because we’re coming off (four) runner-up finishes. It’s a very painful moment, and we can’t let it affect the rest of the year. Unfortunately, it’s already behind us and now we have to lift our heads, because being Corinthians means that: facing difficult moments and still showing our strength. All the players on this team are very strong and capable enough to get through this bad moment and arrive at the next competition, which is already a knockout competition. The first match is already worth a lot. It’s about making the most of the weeks we have until then to train. I think that, as I said, even though the result is negative, we can take positive points from the team’s commitment,” she continued.

Next, the No. 27 spoke about the impact of off-field issues on the pitch. Corinthians has outstanding financial obligations to the players related to the 2025 Women’s Libertadores title, in addition to the runner-up finishes in the Copa das Campeãs and the Supercopa do Brasil, both in 2026. The players also had two months of image rights payments overdue, which were settled by the Osmar Stabile administration after a meeting with the squad.

At the start of this year, there was also a change in the coaching staff. Right at the beginning of the Brasileirão, Lucas Piccinato left the position and Emily Lima arrived. Duda Sampaio also credited the team’s improvement in the Brasileirão Women’s knockout stage, with qualification over Cruzeiro and Bahia in the quarterfinals and semifinals, to the squad’s collective unity. In the first phase of the tournament, Alvinegro had the second-best campaign with 38 points – 12 wins, two draws and three defeats – 42 goals scored and 18 conceded.

“I think it’s hard to say that this influences things on the field. Speaking individually, I’m able to be here and forget what’s outside. It’s a moment we love, the moment to play, to be happy here. Of course there were moments of great difficulty this year, the coaching changes, the club itself, among us there were also moments of holding ourselves accountable, of trying to get more, to get more out of the squad. I think all of that is part of it. It’s a difficult moment, but Corinthians is very big and we, as athletes, need to represent it in the best way possible. I know we won’t always win, but we have to give ourselves fully and give everything, leave exhausted knowing that we tried in every possible way.”

“The collective involves everything. Not just the players on the field, but the club and the coaching staff as well. I think that, in this final stretch, we managed to have a strong collective and really pull together, and we showed that in the other matches. In the last one, we let it slip while playing at home, and there we could have done more. Here today, we fought until the end, we tried, we looked for it from set pieces, from open play, we took more shots than we had been taking, but unfortunately we couldn’t turn them into goals. So it’s heads up and sticking together in this difficult moment because we still have two competitions left this year,” she went on.

Finally, the Corinthians midfielder was asked about the huge crowd at Morumbis. The 49,405 fans became the largest attendance ever for a women’s football match in South America. Previously, that record belonged to Timão. In the 2024 Brasileirão final, also against São Paulo, in Itaquera, 44,529 Corinthians fans were in attendance.

“It’s great to see a full stadium, that’s what we expect, women’s football calls for that. It’s rewarding to have a spectacle of this size for the fans. Thinking long term, about how hard we’ve already fought to achieve this,” she concluded.

After the final, the Corinthians squad will turn its attention to the Women’s Libertadores. Their debut is scheduled for October 15 at 5 p.m. (Brasília time) against Colo-Colo at Rodrigo Paz Delgado Stadium. Next, the Brabas face Caracas on the 18th at 9 p.m. Timão is the winningest club in the international competition with six titles: 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

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