Flamengo travelled to Buenos Aires with the intention of getting a point and will return home happy with the outcome, if not the performance.
The Carioca side actually took a first-half lead despite seeing very little of the play in attacking areas, when a flowing attacking move was not dealt with by the Lanús defence, allowing the ball to run right across the face of goal to leave Léo Moura with a simple back-post finish.
It was football’s equivalent of a hit-and-run as Flamengo once more returned to their defensive set-up that saw them rarely progress out of their own half. Ronaldinho, for all his virtues, was a mere bystander throughout. An all too common occurance for someone called-up for Brazil duty.
Lanús did grab an equaliser with twenty minutes to play through César Carranza, to take some consilation from this home game, but they will be rueing their inability to take-down a disappointing Flamengo side.
Next up for the Brazilians – Emelec travel from Ecuador for a fixture at the Engenhão in three weeks time.
