Midfielder Gustavo Cuéllar, from Al Hilal, celebrated his team’s good performance on the Flamengothis Tuesday, which yielded the classification to the grand final of the Club World Cup. The Saudi Arabian team defeated Rubro-Negro by 3-2, at Ibn Batouta Stadium, in Tangier, Morocco.
After the match, the Colombian highlighted the defensive performance of Al Hilal and completed saying that the team advanced to the decision in a “deserved” way. He also believes that the “psychological shock” of having one less player harmed Flamengo on the pitch.
“We had one more man and managed to control the game. I think we are deservedly in the final. I still haven’t seen the penalties, but I think it was because of their (Flamengo) recklessness. And we scored two goals, and then the third in one counterattack,” he declared as he left the stadium.
“Obviously when we are in advantage, it is a psychological blow for them. So, we took advantage of that, after the second penalty even more. And I think we played a very good game defensively. end,” he said.
In the 53rd minute of the first stage, midfielder Gerson ended up being expelled for hitting his opponent inside the area and committing a penalty. Before, the midfielder had been warned with a yellow card for simulating a penalty.
The Saudis, then, took advantage of the chances that the Brazilian team offered in the initial stage and scored two goals from the penalty spot, with Salem Al-Dawsari. Later, in the second half, Luciano Vietto scored the third. Pedro scored Flamengo’s two goals in the duel.
“We knew the quality of Éverton (Ribeiro) and Arrascaeta, who always come in the middle. Our analyst already knew how they were going to try to break through our defense, so everything was very well studied. Defensively we did very well. In the offensive part we left one little to be desired, we had some mistakes, but we managed to score three goals and that is the most important thing”, he evaluated.
Cuéllar defended Flamengo’s colors between 2016 and 2019 and, therefore, shared a locker room with several players from the current Red-Black squad. He and his team, Al Hilal, are now waiting for their opponent in the World Cup final, which will start from the clash between Real Madrid and Al Ahly, from Egypt, scheduled for 4 pm (Brasília time) this Wednesday. Fla, on the other hand, will have to settle for the third place dispute in the competition.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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