Corinthians women’s coach on Jhonson’s form, reflects on Libertadores debut

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Central do Timão

·4 ottobre 2025

Corinthians women’s coach on Jhonson’s form, reflects on Libertadores debut

By Fabio Luigi / Central do Timão Editorial Team

With a goal from midfielder Gabi Zanotti, Corinthians faced Independiente Dell Valle from Ecuador last Thursday afternoon, October 2, at Lencho Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the first round of the group stage of the Women's Libertadores and drew 1-1.

After the match, coach Lucas Piccinato gave an interview to the journalists present and was questioned about the fluctuating performance of the 19-year-old striker Jhonson. Present in the last two call-ups of the Brazilian Women's National Team – led by Arthur Elias – the young player hasn't scored since May.

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Photo: Rodrigo Gazzanel/Agência Corinthians

“I think Johnson is still a player in development and, in a way, she reached a peak in the season with an upward fluctuation, especially in May. Many goals, involvement in goals, but she is still a player in development. It's the first year she's really managing to play professionally, you will fluctuate up, you will fluctuate down, I think she's going through a downward fluctuation, missing some opportunities and not being able to finish as she would like. It's natural for a young player, but our job is, obviously, to recover, to keep her grounded when she's having a good moment.”

“Even though sometimes it's more difficult, because everything came in a very strong avalanche, Brazilian National Team, Copa América, but trying to keep her grounded so she understands that she is still in the development process, and now that she is not having a good moment, it's not about criticizing her, it's about getting her out of this bad moment, providing the information so she can have a better moment and we will definitely do that, she will get out of this moment,” he began.

He then assessed the team's performance in the international competition debut against the Ecuadorian team. According to Piccinato, the team had a day where some individual performances were below expectations.

“I think we started with an interesting rotation, created two or three opportunities at the beginning of the game, suffered the penalty, scored the goal, and then we somewhat reduced the intensity. Even so, a game, in my view, controlled, we with possession did not suffer, but our second phase of construction made many mistakes today. We couldn't deliver better balls for our attack to finish. And when we did, our attack didn't finish either. So, I think collectively, we played an okay game, but individually we played a very poor game in various sectors. This cost us dearly because it cost us opportunities, cost us the chance to extend the score and control the game.”

“And we were punished at the end with a ball crossed into the area, which we knew would be more or less like that. We weren't successful in clearing the first ball. The ball was left, the girl scored the goal. Even so, we had a face-to-face opportunity afterward and didn't score. This competition is very cruel. If you don't take advantage of the opportunities, you will certainly be punished. I think today we were punished,” he continued.

Finally, Piccinato stated that Corinthians' group in the Women's Libertadores (A – Independiente Del Valle – Ecuador, Santa Fé – Colombia, and Always Ready – Bolivia) is the “group of death” of the international tournament. He again lamented the goal conceded at the end of the match.

“I think it's a complicated group and we already knew, perhaps, a 'group of death', with three teams that reached the semifinals last year. I think both Always Ready and Santa Fé will cause us problems in the next two rounds. We will live one day at a time, still digesting a bad start result, something we didn't expect. I think we had numerous opportunities to kill the game, to make the game calm and solve the match, and we made many technical mistakes today, not only in terms of finishing but in construction, passing errors that we don't usually have, which is not normal for the team, and that cost us dearly.”

“We leave a bit upset about conceding a goal at the end and putting ourselves in the situation we are in. There's no way to lament for too long, tomorrow is already a new day, we have to change focus a bit, prepare. We went through this last season, it wasn't a good taste, but we managed to turn things around within the competition, and that's what we will seek again. First the qualification and then, obviously, the bigger goals within the competition,” he concluded.

Corinthians will return to the field in the Women's Libertadores this Sunday, October 5, to face Always Ready, at Estadio Nuevo Francisco Urbano, in Morón, at 4 pm (Brasília time), for the second round of the group stage of the international competition.

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