Gabriel Paulista admits defensive errors, expects response, no ref blame | OneFootball

Defender Gabriel Paulista spoke in the mixed zone at Beira-Rio stadium after Corinthians’ 2-0 loss to Internacional in the first leg of the Copa do Brasil round of 16, and analyzed the team’s performance, lamenting the goals conceded and acknowledging the team’s mistakes.

The defender said the team’s feeling is one of outrage over the match and the goals they conceded. According to the player, the defensive solidity built alongside coach Fernando Diniz could not be replicated in Porto Alegre.

“Man, we’re left with this feeling of anger, because we’re a team that is very solid defensively and to concede two goals the way we did, so we have to take that anger into Thursday’s game. Actually, there was a lapse there, a poorly taken ball by Alan Patrick, we couldn’t clear the ball from inside the box and they ended up having a little more intensity than us. I’m not here to talk about one player or another, it’s the defensive system as a whole. We were far too soft when it came to defending and we conceded the goal, and on the penalty play as well, we didn’t defend the way we were supposed to and the penalty ended up happening,” he began.

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“Of course we’re going to analyze everything that happened in this game. It was very clear that Inter were playing off our mistakes and we didn’t know how to take advantage. We maybe lacked a certain patience when we had the ball in attack, to look more for depth, maybe look a bit more for the ball to feet, try individual plays through the middle, even out wide. We couldn’t do that. We managed a few crosses, but we couldn’t finish. The only real chance in the first half was maybe Bidon’s shot, right at the start of the game, but that was it. Inter defended really well and we couldn’t have that patience, like I said, to try to get to the opponent’s goal. We conceded goals in ways that we weren’t able to defend the way we’ve been defending in recent games. We have to take all of this into Thursday. I’m sure the Fiel Torcida will show up in force, they’ll help us, and we’ll go in with fire in our eyes to turn this around and qualify,” Gabriel Paulista continued.

Despite the negative result, the No. 3 showed confidence in a response from the black-and-white side at home on Thursday and highlighted the strength of the support from the Fiel.

“Of course, that’s also part of the game. We know what we’ve been doing throughout the season, right? Since Diniz arrived, we’ve grown a lot, especially in the defensive system, we’ve been really good. And today was a game where we conceded two goals from a collective mistake, it wasn’t any individual mistake, but collectively we ended up making mistakes. In a knockout round, we can’t make mistakes the way we did. And we have to take only positive things from here in the south back to São Paulo, because we have only a few days to rest, train what needs to be trained, and Thursday will be a war, for sure. The Fiel Torcida will support us from the warm-up, and on the field we’ll have to show everything we’ve been doing in these last few games, and at home we are very strong and we will turn all of this around,” he concluded.

Asked about the refereeing in the match, Gabriel preferred not to stir up controversy and said that subject should stay out of the players’ analysis.

“I’ve always been a player who tried to put that a bit aside (refereeing). It’s not my role for us to come here and talk about them, but each game also shows it. Just yesterday, Canobbio (Fluminense forward) spoke a lot about the refereeing, but that’s not my role. As Marcelo already said, it was already very clear what the referee did. So that’s it. I’m here more to talk about the game, what happened in the game and, as for the referees, that stays on the field,” said the center-back.

Decision

After the 2-0 away defeat, Corinthians return to the field to face Internacional this Thursday (06) at Neo Química Arena.

Needing to overturn the deficit, Timão will rely on a strong recent record in the competition to keep defending their title.

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