William Batista on U20 win, Corinthians work and final run-in | OneFootball

Corinthians took the field on the afternoon of last Wednesday (17) to face Vitória at Estádio Alfredo Schürig, Fazendinha, in a match valid for the 16th round of the 2026 Brazilian Under-20 Championship qualifying stage, and beat the opponent 2-1. The goals for the Sons of Terrão were scored by defensive midfielder Luiz Gustavo Bahia and forward Luiz Fernando.

The result put Corinthians back in the G8 (the qualification zone for the Brasileirão quarterfinals in the category) with 25 points — seven wins, four draws and five losses, with 27 goals scored and 21 conceded. Moments after the final whistle, head coach William Batista spoke exclusively to Central do Timão and answered whether he expected Vitória’s team to cause problems for the Sons of Terrão, who only went ahead at the 43rd minute of the second half.

Photo: Rodrigo Gazzanel/Agência Corinthians

In his response, the coach highlighted the quality of the opposing team, which, even with only slim chances of qualifying for the knockout stage, had been causing trouble for other teams and picking up points away from home: “We expected it to be a difficult match. Vitória is coming off some good away performances; they actually play even better away than at home. They drew with Cruzeiro away, drew with Palmeiras away, picked up a lot of points on the road, so we knew this is a team that plays well away from home. We expected it to be a difficult game, and I think it was.”

“Of course there’s the weight of responsibility on our side, having to get the three points to move into the G8, which we managed to do. That may have weighed on us a bit. Vitória is playing almost without pressure, because they no longer have a chance to qualify. They also practically have no chance of going down, so that makes Vitória a little lighter in the game. I think we managed to build an important win for us, to get the win today, which we managed to do,” he began.

He then also highlighted the team’s better campaign this season compared to 2024 and 2025, when the side fought near the bottom of the table and ran a serious risk of relegation last season. In the first year, when there was still no relegation, Alvinegro finished 18th with 18 points in 19 matches. In the second, meanwhile, they ended in 15th place with 20 points in 19 games. The club from Parque São Jorge has not qualified for the Brasileirão knockout stage since 2023, when it was eliminated by Palmeiras in the semifinal.

“We’re on 25 points, with three matches left, inside the G8. I think it’s important to remember that in the last two years in this category, in 2024 for example, Corinthians, I think, got 16 or 17 points. Fortunately there was no relegation at the time. Last year, they got only 20 points and only survived right at the end, and we’ve managed to stay in the fight up there until the end. We went through a somewhat unstable spell six rounds ago, we had a lot of absences, and now we’ve got an almost complete squad again. So we’re happy with the win and with getting the team back into the G8,” he continued.

Next, he commented on expectations for the final three rounds of the first phase of the Brasileirão U-20, in which Corinthians will face Cruzeiro and Juventude away from home, in addition to Flamengo at Parque São Jorge. Regarding the next opponent, Cruzeiro, next Saturday (20), William will reunite with Mairon César, coach of the Minas Gerais side who was his assistant during his time at América-MG.

“I know Cruzeiro well, right? I spent five years in Minas (at América-MG) and Cruzeiro’s coach was my assistant for four years. Mairon (César). It’s a club I know very well against a coach I know a lot, who used to be my assistant. They’ll be difficult games, there are no easy games, today was a difficult game. We’ll take it one game at a time, do our best, study well what we can do against Cruzeiro first, then Flamengo and Juventude last, so that when the nineteenth round ends we’re inside the G8 and ready to fight in the knockout stage, which is our goal,” he went on.

Finally, he assessed his work in Corinthians’ youth ranks, as he is close to completing one year in the role, having been hired at the beginning of August 2025 to replace Orlando Ribeiro. At that time, Timãozinho was going through a turbulent period, facing problems in the makeup of the U-20 squad, having to turn to some U-17 players, and had just finished a below-expectations campaign in the national tournament.

At that moment, Alvinegro only had the state championship in the category left to play, in which it ended up being eliminated by Santos in the round of 16. As a result, William Batista officially managed Corinthians in only five matches between August and December, until the start of the Copa São Paulo in January this year.

In Brazil’s biggest youth tournament, in fact, Timão, the most successful club in Copinha history, was knocked out as early as the second round after a 2-1 defeat to Guarani in Jaú. The coach also highlighted the work done by the department’s executive, Erasmo Damiani, who arrived at Parque São Jorge in October 2025. With the U-20s, Batista has 13 wins, six draws and seven defeats, which represents a 58% success rate. In addition, the team has scored 37 goals and conceded 29.

“At first, up until Copinha, it was much more about diagnosis than anything else, together with the board, with (Erasmo) Damiani, because I arrived in August, so that was four months until Copinha, but I only coached five matches, so there were very few games worth three points. Then after Copinha, we already had a better diagnosis of what our team was, of what we needed to do in terms of letting players go, which we did, and bringing in other players like we brought in, and then trying to maximize what we already had as well. It’s not easy, it’s complex, because you take over a huge club like Corinthians, with enormous demands to develop, produce players and also win, which is important for the club, and that had been getting few sporting results in the last two years, results that are not worthy of what Corinthians is, with some players moving up to the first team out of necessity because of the transfer ban: Dieguinho and Gui Negão, for example.”

He continued by saying that he considers the overall outcome of the work positive so far: “We needed to work on the succession line within the category. I think today it’s more organized, and as time goes by it keeps improving. Now, almost a year in, I think it’s positive. It’s hard for us to talk about ourselves, but speaking as a whole — as a club, management, Damiani, everyone involved. I think it’s positive because we’ve managed to put Corinthians back in the fight, back into the qualification picture, after two years like the last one, which was turbulent. We’ve managed to maximize some players, like Luizinho, (Guilherme) Pellegrin returning to play as a full-back. (Nicolas) Araújo coming into the game, Caraguá coming into the game, then there’s Chapéu, Luiz Eduardo, coming into the game.”

He concluded: “Also without the immediate need for players — the U-17s having to take on a leading role all the time in the U-20s, as had been happening and disrupting the youngsters’ development process. I think we’ve been able to strike a better balance between the youngsters and sporting results. Trying to make the team play better and better, which is also not easy, because of everything we have to build: defend well, attack well, attack in an organized way, give the players confidence — that’s important. It was a group with somewhat damaged self-esteem, because of what they had gone through; today it’s less damaged than it was. So there were many scars that needed to heal, which I think we’ve managed to heal. But we’ve been looking more at the medium and long term, so that it doesn’t stop here and keeps evolving, so we can get sporting returns, which means wins, and developmental returns, which means delivering the player at the best possible level to our first team.”

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