Leonardo Jardim reveals why he ruled De La Cruz out against Flamengo | OneFootball

Flamengo and Athletico-PR drew 1-1 in Nicolás De La Cruz’s absence

Nicolás De La Cruz was left out of another Flamengo match this Sunday (17). As a result, Leonardo Jardim explained the Uruguayan’s absence from the last two Rubro-Negro clashes after the 1-1 draw with Athletico-PR on the synthetic pitch at Arena da Baixada.

— As for De La Cruz, considering the way Vitória have been playing, I already had to take him off at halftime at the Maracanã because Vitória play direct balls forward. And our De La Cruz is not a player with those characteristics. He’s a player who needs to have the ball, and he struggled. That’s why I took him off at halftime in the first game. In this match, I wasn’t going to make that mistake -, he said, and added:

— Our bet, since we were behind, was to use more of Pedro and Bruno (Henrique), so we could have more aggression in the central area. We had I don’t know how many long balls, we created several chances, but we ended up not finishing them. It’s not a personal issue with De La Cruz, but a matter of strategy. The two holding midfielders, Jorginho and Evertton, were doing well in the match (against Vitória), and that was our decision -, Jardim emphasized in a press conference.

Where is De La Cruz?

The Rubro-Negro side have played 33 matches this season. Of those, the Uruguayan midfielder featured in 17. The midfielder’s last appearance came in the 15th round against Grêmio. On that occasion, the player was on the pitch for only three minutes.

How did Flamengo draw with Athletico-PR?

Without De La Cruz, Mendoza opened the scoring with an angled shot that beat Rossi in the first half. In the second half, however, Fla equalized through the pace of Bruno Henrique, who set up Pedro to find the net.

What is Flamengo’s next match?

Before Palmeiras, however, Flamengo host Estudiantes (ARG) at the Maracanã on Wednesday (20). The ball starts rolling at 9:30 p.m. (Brasília time) in the fifth round of Group A of the Libertadores.

So, Coluna do Fla will bring all the details of the match on YouTube, the website, and social media. The broadcast of the match, however, will be on Globo (free-to-air TV), ESPN (pay TV), and Disney+ (streaming).

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