Cássio hails Flamengo draw, urges respect for Cruzeiro, eyes run-in | OneFootball

Cruzeiro left Maracanã with a goalless draw against Flamengo, on Thursday (2), for the 26th round of the Brazilian Championship. The result kept Raposa in third place, now with 51 points, and frustrated the chance to take over the vice-leadership. Even so, for goalkeeper Cássio, the point earned has a special weight against the competition leader.

"We are happy with the result. If you look at the Brazilian Championship, how many teams managed to get four points from Flamengo? It's a very tough, very competitive team, that will fight until the end. And we came here, fought, responded after the game against Vasco, in which we did not do well. Today we played a great game, with fight, dedication and commitment," said the number 1 to Sportv.

The goalkeeper also made a point of valuing the presence of the celestial crowd at Maracanã and praised the moment lived by the club under the management of SAF led by Pedro Lourenço.

"This Cruzeiro set, this new Cruzeiro from Pedrinho's SAF, is very important. We are bringing back the pride of the fans. I think we deserve a little more respect, because we are competing with teams that have had great squads and fight for titles for six years. Often, one or two of their players cost more than our entire squad. Even so, we are having a great championship and we are in the semifinals of the Copa do Brasil," he stressed.

With the draw, Flamengo reached 55 points, saw the advantage to Palmeiras fall to three and turned on the alert at the top of the table. Cruzeiro, on the other hand, remains close to the top and now concentrates forces to face Sport, on Sunday, at 8:30 pm (Brasília time), at Mineirão, for the 27th round.

Cruzeiro's Goal in the Brasileirão

With the clear goal of returning to the Libertadores, Cássio highlighted the recent evolution of the team under the command of Leonardo Jardim.

"The main goal is to take Cruzeiro to the Libertadores. We will fight until the end. We have one less rest game now, but we will prepare well for Sunday, against Sport, at Mineirão, with the support of the fans. We have to think game by game. We started the season badly, but we managed to improve in the Brasileirão and in the Copa do Brasil. Professor Jardim has a great role in this," he said.

Finally, the goalkeeper drew attention to the performance of the refereeing, praising the performance of Ramon Abatti Abel at Maracanã. "We often hit the refereeing a lot, but today the referee was very good. He gave cards to both sides, unfortunately we had a red one, but it was fair, he had personality. That's what we want. For football to evolve, we need to think about the whole. So, congratulations for the refereeing today. It's very difficult to come here and referee, and he tried to be fair to both sides," he concluded.

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