Zubeldía hails Flu progress, admits suffering: “We suffered too much”

In partnership with

Saudações Tricolores.com

·28 Mei 2026

Zubeldía hails Flu progress, admits suffering: “We suffered too much”

Coach Luis Zubeldía celebrated Fluminense's qualification for the Libertadores round of 16 after a 3-1 win over Deportivo La Guaira at the Maracanã. After the match, the coach analyzed Tricolor's turbulent group-stage campaign and admitted the club suffered more than he expected to advance.

Fluminense secured its place thanks to the victory in Rio de Janeiro and also to Bolívar's defeat to Independiente Rivadavia. In the press conference, Zubeldía pointed to the stumbles in the opening rounds as key to the complicated situation the team faced throughout the competition.

Video OneFootball

— The difficulties came, at certain moments, from that match in Venezuela. I want to analyze it game by game, because that seems the most logical to me. In Venezuela we had the chance to convert two or three very clear opportunities, a penalty that Conmebol itself later acknowledged, and we didn't bring back a result that, to me, matched the way the game went, which would have been a win. Because we didn't take those three points, we played with a certain nervousness here against Independiente Rivadavia, even though we created more scoring chances and the opponent practically created none. We made two specific mistakes and, in those first two rounds, we dropped five points, and that's when the situation became complicated — he said.

The coach also recalled the difficulty of playing at altitude against Bolívar and assessed that the problems created at the start of the group stage left Fluminense under pressure heading into the final round.

— In the Copa Libertadores, during the group stage, when you drop five points against two opponents — one because you're playing at home and the other because, due to budget and other factors, you feel you can get a win, even knowing it may be difficult — everything gets complicated. And it was mainly related to those two matches. Then, playing at altitude... We knew that positive results are achieved there on very few occasions, and then the Libertadores already starts to become more complicated. In our view, we ended up suffering much more than we should have — he added.

Even under pressure in recent weeks, Zubeldía also highlighted the internal support he received from the board and people at the club during the unstable moments in the competition.

— We are already having meetings to look at the moves that may happen. But I want to highlight these three people, of course there are many more people working, an entire structure, that in adverse moments, all the day-to-day people, staff, media people as well, it isn't easy. Nowadays, working at a club where passion flares up round after round, the responsibility is very great for the people who run the club. But just as we live through the difficult moments together, there are also good moments, and we do not settle. So these three people are important so that in difficult moments we stay together. We managed to qualify today, despite the suffering, and we will keep working to continue improving — he said.

With qualification secured, Fluminense now awaits the Libertadores round-of-16 draw to find out its next opponent in the continental competition.

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