Palmeiras miss Flaco López and Vitor Roque after 12 matches | OneFootball

The Palmeiras faces Juventude this Saturday (11) without the attacking duo Vitor Roque, suspended for the third yellow card, and Flaco López, called up for the Argentine National Team. The duo is the main offensive weapon of Abel Ferreira's team in recent matches.

Without the duo, the coach will have few offensive options for the duel against the Gauchos. In addition to the absences of Flaco and Roque, the Verdão also has in attack the absences of Sosa, injured, and Facundo Torres, in the Uruguayan National Team. Bruno Rodrigues and Luighi are the only options of original attackers.

There are also the presences of Felipe Anderson, a winger who can play more centralized, and Maurício, a midfielder who has already played as a second striker and false 9.

Since when Vitor Roque and Flaco López started playing together, in the victory over Ceará at Allianz Parque on August 10, there were 13 matches and only in one the duo started on the bench: in the rout over Fortaleza between the quarterfinal matches of the Libertadores. On that occasion, the attacking trio lined up by Abel Ferreira was Facundo Torres, Sosa and Maurício (improvised) - against Juventude, only Maurício is available.

Duo is Palmeiras' trump card

In the Brazilian Championship, Flaco López and Vitor Roque scored 11 of the 19 goals of Palmeiras in the Brasileirão since they were first lined up as starters. During this period, there were eight games in the national championship, and the attackers did not start the match only against Fortaleza. Adding all competitions, there are ten goals for each.

With the goal in the victory over São Paulo, Flaco López equaled his most scoring season for Palmeiras, with 22 goals, but with ten fewer games than in 2024 - 51 in 2025 against 61 last year. The Argentine was called up by Scaloni for the next friendlies of Argentina and accumulated his second consecutive call-up.

Vitor Roque, on the other hand, had his football enhanced by the change and performance in duo. In 2025 he already surpassed the number of participations in goals from his time in European football, even with fewer games. In the victory against São Paulo, the number 9 reached 18 direct participations - 14 goals and four assists in 44 matches - against nine goals for Betis and Barcelona without any assist, in 49 matches. Now, he wants to surpass his most scoring year: 2023, with 21 goals.

Palmeiras and Juventude face each other on Saturday (11), at 7pm (Brasília time), at Allianz Parque, in São Paulo, in a delayed match of the 12th round of the Brazilian Championship.

Next Palmeiras games

Palmeiras x Juventude - Brazilian Championship - 10/11 (Saturday), 7pm (Brasília time)

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