Dorival hails Corinthians’ bravery at Barradão: “We showed character” | OneFootball

Coach Dorival Júnior highlighted the courage and personality of Corinthians, who, with one player less, secured an important victory over Vitória this Saturday, 1-0, at Barradão, in the 30th round of the Brazilian Championship. The coach valued the positive result, which moved Timão away from the relegation zone.

The match between Vitória and Corinthians was notably marked by the high number of cards. Referee Wilton Pereira Sampaio handed out a total of 11 cards—ten yellow and one red, the latter to Breno Bidon. Dorival explained that he already expected a very scrappy game and prepared the team for it.

“Because it was a much more scrappy game, it was much more physical than technical. Because of that, many cards. Cards that made the game become tense. Difficulties on both sides, few chances created, a very hard-fought game. I confess that this was within what we expected, because we had already watched previous matches, and this was the profile we anticipated for today. We had a brave team that fought, that tried to get the result, and even with one less did not back down. We showed personality, we went for the goal. We had many more positive individual performances, like Felipe Longo,” the coach said at the press conference.

“Today, we kept the ball for a good amount of time, but you could see that our passing was slower, made difficult by the pitch, which was holding up the ball a lot. It wasn’t giving speed to the game, for either Corinthians or Vitória. This made marking easier. The marking was constant, and there was an excess of cards. But today was an important result at this moment,” he continued.

Despite the difficulties, Corinthians achieved a very important result at Barradão. Timão climbed to ninth place in the standings and reached 39 points, moving away from the relegation zone and, even if only temporarily, appearing in the upper part of the table.

“Overall, it was a very scrappy game. Both teams had difficulties, defenses prevailed over attacks, and this made the game very contested in midfield. Difficulties in passing, perhaps, little speed in these movements, which allowed the marking to close in quickly. We had few chances, and Vitória had few as well. It was a very hard-fought match,” said the coach.

“Vitória was coming off a very interesting run, improving in the competition. It was a very important, fundamental game. We were practically tied on points, now fortunately we managed to pull ahead a bit. The championship continues, we still have a lot ahead. I hope we can improve round by round,” he concluded.

Raniele’s Positioning

Dorival also briefly commented on Raniele’s positioning. After Corinthians’ lineup was announced, there was some doubt as to whether he would play as a defensive midfielder, his original position, or be improvised as a third center-back.

In the end, in the system implemented by Dorival, Raniele performed both roles at different moments in the match, which was appreciated by the coach.

“It’s a role he played when defending. Attacking, he has a different function. We used this setup up to a certain point. Then, we moved Raniele a bit more inside, because Vitória’s team was finding more space there. Especially after Bidon’s sending off, which exposed that area, and since Vitória was starting to press, we sought a bit more consistency. Raniele has been performing this role, he feels very good, very comfortable, and makes our team very secure. In 16 or 17 matches, we haven’t conceded goals. It was a problem we used to have frequently and it hasn’t happened for some time now,” Dorival concluded.

Corinthians’ Position in the Table

Upcoming Corinthians Matches

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