Igor Rabello admits poor Fluminense half, blasts refereeing: “Stop play”

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·6 August 2026

Igor Rabello admits poor Fluminense half, blasts refereeing: “Stop play”

Defender admitted passing mistakes and Vasco’s superiority at the start of the derby, lamented elimination from the Copa do Brasil, and called for play to be stopped after a blow to the head

Fluminense have been knocked out of the Copa do Brasil. After a 2-1 defeat to Vasco at the Maracanã, Tricolor said goodbye to the tournament in the round of 16. As he left the pitch, defender Igor Rabello assessed the team’s performance, admitted their approach was below expectations in the opening half, and commented on the incident in which he was left on the ground after being hit in the head.

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The defender acknowledged that Fluminense’s passing errors in the first half allowed the opponent to launch counterattacks, making it harder for the team to recover throughout the match.

— We didn’t play well in the first half, we misplaced a lot of passes, our passing in general. Vasco were better than us in the first half. With our build-up, we were able to get into midfield, but whenever we moved the ball, we lost it, and they came at us on the counterattack. So we made a lot of mistakes in the first half, and we know that. We got it right in the second, we controlled the game, but unfortunately they found that second goal. It became difficult to come back, we scored, we pushed again. Now it’s time to switch off from the Copa do Brasil and focus on the next competition — said the defender.

When asked about the incident in which he claimed to have suffered an elbow, Igor Rabello avoided directly criticizing referee Wilton Pereira Sampaio over the foul itself, but stressed the need to stop the game in situations involving head impacts.

— I have the utmost respect for referees, I’m not going to talk about the referee here. Wilton knows I respect him. But when there’s a blow to the head, the game has to be stopped, that’s the rule. Whether it was a foul or not, that’s for him to judge. I’m not the referee to know whether it was a foul, I thought it was from my point of view. But I’m not going to keep talking about refereeing. I think we made too many mistakes in the first half, and after that it was too late to turn the score around. Now it’s time to switch off and think about the next one — Igor Rabello concluded.

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