Palmeiras coach Abel Ferreira reflects on what the Botafogo victory is striking, while he is explained how his team is planning to take more difficult challenges at the FIFA Club World Cup.
The Sao Paulo giants fought their way along their city rivals in a tense extra-time confrontation and achieved a grim 1-0 victory to take their ticket to the quarterfinals.
The 100th minute strike by Paulinho on Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia turned out to be decisive and ended the five-match Winless Run of his team against Rio de Janeiro-based side.
Although their victory was threatened after Gustavo Gomez was sent for a second yellow card, the team kept their calmness and caused progression to the joy of their manager.
“I think this victory was better because of this (the resignation of Gomez),” Ferreira said during a press conference.
“Even with one player less player, or one player less than the opponent, we can block them and we can support the entire attack of our opponent.
“We earn it (to win) because the game was 90 minutes plus extra time and in all that time I think my team was better than the opponent and we deserve to go to the next phase.”
Thanks to the result, the men of Ferreira expanded their impressive run, achieving 10 victories and only two draws in their last 14 games in all competitions.
In fact, the Alviverde held five clean sheets in their last seven FIFA competition matches, including three in their four performances at the current FIFA Club World Cup.
Ferreira unveils strategy to combat stronger teams
Palmeiras is now confronted with Chelsea in their quarter -final collision on Friday, aimed at a place in the semi -final.
When asked how his team is planning to recover mentally for the more difficult challenge that lies for us, especially after playing 120 minutes in their previous match, the former PAOK and Braga manager replied: “Every time or (before a) game, I talk to my players about our plan.
“If we win, what we have to do to block them. If we lose what we have to do to be more aggressive.
“If we have less than one player and we have to stop them, as we did (against Botafogo) or if we have less than one player and you have to play more aggressively. So they know because I have worked with them for the past five years.
“I know them, they know me. So with some conversations we can adjust the way we did (on Saturday) with less than one player.
“We have placed three players in the middle, one number five, one number eight and the eleven players, close inside and we do not leave our striker in the front but in half the room, in the left half space.
“And the others, my wing players, follow the fullbacks and we support with all our strength in the middle because the opponent will certainly cross.
“So extra effort we need and we have to suffer and I speak to them many times. In some times, when we can't play the way we did, we can't have the ball as it happened against Botafogo in the last 15 minutes, we have to be very strong here, you know, to stay together, to give us maximum.”
This is the second encounter between Palmeiras and Chelsea, where the blues won their first meeting 2-1 after extra time in the Fifa Club World Cup final.
There have been seven earlier collisions between English and Brazilian sides in this tournament, with English teams who won four and Brazilian teams three.
Before this tournament was held in the United States, teams from England were in a winning series of three games, but Flamengo finished that run with a 3-1 victory over Chelsea in the group stage.
Palmeiras star Paulinho is certainly a player to look at what an exciting meeting promises to be. The Brazil international has picked up three goals and two assists in six performances in the Conmebol Libertadores and FIFA Club World Cup.
In particular, all five of those target contributions came in competitions where he started on the couch.