Author: Vishwajit Sawant
In a lacklustre match on Saturday night, Cruzeiro and Cuiabá played out a goalless draw at the Arena Pantanal in the 26th round of the Brazilian Championship. The home side, Cuiabá, had the upper hand and created more clear chances, but failed to take advantage of them. The most dangerous moment of the entire match was scored by Clayson in the 44th minute. The Cuiabá player hit the post.
Cruzeiro’s performance left a lot to be desired, especially considering that the team had more than ten days to prepare since their last game on October 1, which ended in a 1-1 draw against América-MG. Despite the underwhelming performance, the draw yielded a single point and moved the team up two places in the standings. Celeste are now in 13th place with 31 points, overtaking Santos and Corinthians.
This draw paves the way for a sequence of challenging matches for Zé Ricardo’s side. The next challenge will be against Flamengo on Thursday 19th at the Mineirão Stadium, kicking off at 7pm (Brasília time). Just three days later, the squad faces arch-rivals Atlético-MG on the 22nd at the MRV Arena, starting at 3pm.
The first half of the game at the Arena Pantanal was characterized by a low technical level, with Cuiabá having the best chances, while Cruzeiro struggled to make an impact.
An unfortunate incident in the 27th minute saw William and Uendel collide head-on, causing Uendel to leave the stadium in an ambulance due to a head injury.
Cruzeiro will also face Flamengo without midfielder Machado, who received a yellow card and is suspended for the next match. Defender Lucas Oliveira, who played out of position in midfield, also received a yellow card and will sit out the match against Flamengo next week.
Midfielder Matheus Jussa and striker Bruno Rodrigues should return to Cruzeiro after being unavailable for the game against Cuiabá due to automatic suspensions for accumulating three yellow cards against América-MG.