Dorival hopes Pablo Maia and Marcos Antônio return for Botafogo | OneFootball

With another clash at Morumbi ahead, São Paulo’s squad reconvened this Wednesday (20) at the Barra Funda training center and began preparations for the match against Botafogo in the Brazilian Championship after drawing with Colombia’s Millonarios in the Copa Sudamericana on the night of last Tuesday (19).

The match against the Rio club will be played next Saturday (23), at 5 p.m. Brasília time, valid for the 17th round of the national competition.

The day’s activities were split according to each player’s minutes against the Colombians: those who played longer did recovery work indoors, while the rest of the group went out onto the pitch for a session with Dorival Júnior’s coaching staff.

After the warm-up, which included mobility exercises and technical drills, the players carried out training on attacking and defensive situations: center-backs and full-backs worked on defensive line behavior, while midfielders and forwards did drills focused on movement and build-up play.

Then there was an additional attack-versus-defense session. The coaching staff also ran a small-sided game in which players were limited to three touches in the defensive line, while the attacking sector had unlimited touches.

Youngsters Igor Felisberto, Nicolas, Tetê and Ryan Francisco did not take part in this afternoon’s training because they played in São Paulo’s 3-0 win over Criciúma in Cotia in the Brazilian Under-20 Championship.

The priority for the match against Botafogo will be to have Pablo Maia and Marcos Antônio back.

Of the two, Maia’s situation is further along, as he continues to work on his fitness after surgery to repair fractures to his nose and face and has been seen training normally in images of the sessions released by São Paulo.

Marcos Antônio, who is in transition after a right rectus femoris injury, depends on clearance from the medical department and fitness coaches. Unlike his teammate, he is expected to be an option on the bench.

This Wednesday (21), again at the training center, Tricolor will continue fine-tuning for the clash with Botafogo.

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