Airport works force São Paulo to miss training before Libertadores | OneFootball

São Paulo had to change its plans for the first leg of the Copa Libertadores quarterfinals against LDU, scheduled for 7:30 PM (Brasília time) on Thursday (18), away from home.

With the aim of minimizing the effects of Quito’s altitude, Tricolor had drawn up a travel schedule that needed to be changed due to a structural issue: Guayaquil airport will undergo runway renovations on Wednesday (17) and Thursday.

As a result, the Morumbi club saw its logistics disrupted and its plans to try to avoid the effects of the 2,850 meters of altitude were changed. Worse for coach Hernán Crespo.

This is because, whereas before Tricolor would train on Wednesday morning and then depart for Guayaquil, now the squad’s activities on the day before the match had to be suspended.

São Paulo will train on the morning of this Tuesday (16) at the Barra Funda training center, and the squad will immediately enter into a concentration regime, sleeping on site so that on Wednesday morning, they can depart for Quito.

The São Paulo team is expected to arrive in the late afternoon. And, due to the effects of the altitude, the coaching staff decided to suspend any physical activities that could take place at night. Only a light activation (light exercises) at the hotel with the selected players is scheduled for Thursday morning.

As has become routine, Crespo responded with irony to questions about expectations for upcoming matches and avoided the topic of preparations to face LDU.

“Why do you ask me about the future, if you already know I won’t answer? We’ll see. It’s important. I played at altitude, with the (Argentine) national team. Yes, of course it’s a bit different, but the game plan won’t change. The idea is to try to play the kind of football we identify with. It’s not that we think altitude isn’t important, but I think that if we’re precise, if we have the ball and show the desire we’ve been demonstrating so far… I’m confident, but it’s the Libertadores, and you never know,” he said.

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