Nicole backs Corinthians' defensive solidity in Women's Brasileirão final | OneFootball

Corinthians and São Paulo will play the first leg of the Brazilian Women’s Championship final this Saturday, the 26th, at 4 p.m. (Brasília time), at Neo Química Arena. The second match will be played at Morumbis next Saturday, the 3rd, at the same time.

On Friday morning, the squad wrapped up preparations for the match with a training session led by coach Emily Lima at the venue for tomorrow’s game. Goalkeeper Nicole, one of the team’s standout players, spoke about the importance of getting familiar with the pitch before the final.

“In the last match, we felt that the pitch had been watered and was a little faster,so we ended up doing a few tests during the warm-up, and I think it’s extremely importantfor us to really get a feel for it, just fight, anyway, I think it makes a huge difference, I think it wasvery important to have had this training session here today,” the goalkeeper said in an interview with ESPN.

Corinthians went through an inconsistent season. However, coach Emily Lima managed to bring balance to the squad with her style of play. As a result, the team began conceding fewer goals and showed greater defensive solidity.

Defensive solidity

“Not conceding goals already means you haven’tlost, so we made it a goal, obviously, to win, but also not to concede. I thinknot conceding was very important, both in the quarterfinals and now in the semifinal. I thinkit guarantees a lot, gives us greater peace of mind, so one of our goals is preciselyto think about that, about not conceding, and I think the defense came in with new ideas, and at the beginningwe struggled a bit to, anyway, adapt to that, to really understand what was beingproposed, what new things were being done, and I think that throughout the process wedeveloped better chemistry,” Nicole said before highlighting the rotation in Corinthians’ women’s squad.

Nicole commented on the squad rotation

“We also had a lot of rotation, right, some of the girls ended up getting injured, anyway, they left, came back, I think that weighs quite a bit too, butI think now it was about understanding each other and managing to connect, even though it’s a new job.I think in defense it’s really about understanding each other, you know? Sometimes I look atthe girls and I already know where they want the pass or what they’re going to do. I thinkthat’s very important. I think now, in this final stretch, we managed to understand each other,connect better, both the defense and the whole team, and I think that made all the differencein us not conceding so many goals now in these final stages,” the goalkeeper concluded.

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