Thiago Silva steps up as Fluminense beat Juventude with last-gasp goal | OneFootball

Fluminense struggled more than expected but came away with a 1-0 victory over Juventude at Maracanã in the 28th round of the Brazilian Championship. With a volley, defender Thiago Silva scored the only goal of the match and secured the win for the Tricolor.On a night with little inspiration, Fluminense bothered its fans more than the opponent for most of the game.

Photo: Lucas Merçon/FFC

The team’s collective performance left much to be desired, largely due to technical mistakes from the forwards: Serna, Canobbio, and Cano did not play well.

Lima also had a lackluster performance. The midfielder had the big responsibility of replacing Lucho Acosta, currently one of the standouts of this squad, and did not deliver. As the team was struggling, Zubeldía decided to give up a playmaker and play with four forwards. Therefore, he took Lima off for John Kennedy. Wearing number 99, John Kennedy took responsibility and pulled a great chance out of the hat: he nutmegged the opponent and shot dangerously wide. After that, he kept calling for the ball but didn’t do anything particularly significant. Zubeldía had to make more changes in attack to wake the team up: he brought on Soteldo and Riquelme Felipe in place of Canobbio and Serna. The fresh legs on the wings brought a sense of hope to Flu, who, even while making many mistakes, at least started to trouble Juventude. In the last minute, at 52, goalkeeper Jandrei exceeded the 8 seconds allowed to put the ball back in play. The referee applied the rule and awarded a corner to Flu. In the ensuing play, the ball ended up with Riquelme Felipe. The youngster from Xerém crossed into the box, the ball deflected off the defense, and Thiago Silva scored a beautiful (and strange) volley goal. With the win, Fluminense reaches 41 points and climbs to 7th place in the Brasileirão. The team returns to the pitch next Monday (20th), at 7:30 pm, in the classic against Vasco at Maracanã.

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