Renato Portaluppi is no longer Flamengo’s DT after losing the final of the Copa Libertadores

The Flamengo announced this Monday the coach’s departure Renato Portaluppi, also know as Renato Gaucho, after the Rio team lost the Brazilian final of the Copa Libertadores 2021 with Palmeiras on Saturday in Montevideo.

“Flamengo reports that, after a conversation between the parties, coach Renato Gaúcho no longer commands the main team,” said ‘Mengão’ in a message on Twitter.

The 2-1 defeat in the main American club tournament sentenced the fate of Portaluppi, 59, questioned from before by sectors of the press and the fans for irregular results that practically deprived the ‘Fla’ of winning the Brasileirao for the third time consecutive.

The only Brazilian to raise the Libertadores as a player (1983) and coach (2017), both with the Gremio de Porto Alegre, where he is a living legend, the coach signed with the Cariocas in July after the departure of the legendary former goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni.

Although his arrival revitalized the game of one of the most powerful squads on the continent, his Flamengo at times had defensive and balance problems, which ended up causing him defeats in the final of the Libertadores and in the semis of the Copa do Brasil against Athletico Paranaense in October.

In the 38 games in the red and black chair, Portaluppi registered 25 victories, eight draws and five defeats, for a performance of 72%. In those games, their managers scored 88 goals and conceded 32.

The season finale ended by burying him with Atlético Mineiro de Hulk and Diego Costa riding towards the league title, with eleven points ahead of the Cariocas.

Lazy season

The ‘Mengão’ has four games to go to finish the Brazilian championship, against three for Galo. To be crowned champions for the first time in fifty years, it is enough for those from Belo Horizonte that ‘Fla’ does not beat Ceará on Tuesday at the Maracana.

The technical assistant Maurício Souza will lead the cast in that match and until the end of the Brasileirao, the club said in another message.

Except for the Carioca Championship and the Brazilian Super Cup, won under the command of Ceni, the powerful Flamengo of ‘Gabigol’, Giorgian de Arrascaeta, Filipe Luís, Diego Alves, David Luiz, Mauricio Isla or Bruno Henrique will surely close the 2021 season with empty handed.

Portaluppi’s departure is the third change in the technical direction of the popular Rio de Janeiro team since Portuguese Jorge Jesus left for Benfica in Lisbon in July 2020, after winning five trophies in thirteen months (Libertadores, Brasileirao, Recopa South American, Brazilian Super Cup and Carioca Championship).

After Portuguese, the Spanish Domènec Torrent (former technical assistant of Pep Guardiola), Rogerio Ceni and Renato Portaluppi arrived at the ‘wonderful city’.

But none could follow in the wake of Jorge Jesús, who consolidated the resurgence of ‘Fla’ in the last five years, in which he has been a leading actor in Brazilian and South American football. (D)