Felipe Canavan on team display, no easy games vs Ituano

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·14 January 2026

Felipe Canavan on team display, no easy games vs Ituano

Fluminense defeated Referência this Tuesday (13th) and advanced to the second knockout stage of the 2026 Copinha. The Xerém boys drew 1-1 in regular time and overcame the São Paulo team in the penalty shootout. During the match, the tricolor had a dominant performance in the first half but ended up dropping in performance during the second half. In an exclusive interview with our reporter Pedro Ribeiro, coach Felipe Canavan analyzed the team's performance and commented on this drop in intensity.

“Our challenge is to be as consistent as possible. I agree that the first half was much better. We managed to impose our rhythm and exploit what we knew would be important, but the drop in performance in the second half has a lot to do with the players’ physical fatigue, because it’s a competition where we’re really stretched thin. The athletes had only one day to recover from the match against Esfera, which also has a big impact on performance. Obviously, we tried to refresh the legs and energy with substitutions, but it’s not simple. The game is very mental. We know that fluctuations, unfortunately, are part of it, but we’ll try to stay balanced and give the boys the confidence they need to seek greater consistency in the next stage,” said Felipe Canavan.

In the next round, Fluminense will face the team that knocked them out of the 2024 Copinha, Ituano. The coach of the Xerém boys commented on the difficulty of this match against the São Paulo side. The Itu team has been impressive, having strong campaigns in the competition in recent years.

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“Ituano-SP is a super organized club, with a very solid and relevant project in the state of São Paulo, always revealing good players, with a competitive professional team. We had the chance to watch one of their games in person, in Embu das Artes (ES), and we know it will be a tough duel, against a very qualified team. In the Copa São Paulo, there are no easy matches. We need to be as recovered as possible to keep improving game by game. I’ve been telling the players that we need to advance in terms of performance. I’m satisfied because I’ve seen our evolution throughout the campaign. For much of the time, we were a much better Fluminense than we were against Água Santa-SP in the first round. I hope that, against Ituano, we’ll be even better than what we saw here against Referência. That’s our main goal,” said Felipe.

With qualification secured for the next round, there’s a possibility that the Xerém boys will have to change cities to face Ituano. The São Paulo team had a better record than the tricolor in the first round, but it has not yet been made official by the competition. Felipe Canavan spoke about this possible change of venue.

“It’s very hard to predict. I hope not, because it’s a single match and we need to compete wherever it is, but it wouldn’t be a surprise. We know that the Copa São Paulo has its nuances, and a change of venue will happen at some point. We have to be prepared. If we move to Embu das Artes (SP) in the next round, we’ll find a natural grass pitch, but much smaller than the one where we played the entire first stage and against Referência-SP. That, without a doubt, affects the dynamics of the match. On the other hand, we can’t imagine that it will be a decisive factor to stop us from competing at a good level. I hope that, if that’s the case, the team can adapt quickly.”

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