Fluminense captain Fred returned from a month out through injury to lead his team into the quarter-finals of the Copa Libertadores by scoring the opening goal in Wednesday night’s 2-0 victory over Emelec in Rio de Janeiro.
The Brazilian champions went into the game in poor form having lost the first leg in Ecuador 2-1 and were also suffering after losing the Taça Rio final to Botafogo 1-0. But the return of their talisman and leading goalscorer Fred breathed new life into Abel Braga’s side, who will now face either Tigre or Olimpia in the next round.
Emelec started the game with a real physical approach and quickly had three players book inside the first 25 minutes of the game. But they did not come to just defend and looked to break quickly when the opportunity came up, with Fluminense keeper Diego Cavalieri being forced into early saves from Marlon De Jesus and Enner Valencia.
But it was the home side that took the lead on 28 minutes when Fred showed what they had been missing in his absence when he evaded his marker Nasuti to head in Jean’s cross and swing the game back in the Brazilian sides favour.
With the game level on aggregate but, due to the away goal rule, now in Fluminense’s favour, the away side started to open up and take more risks. This nearly paid off when, just after half time, De Jesus skimmed the crossbar from just inside the Fluminense area.
As Braga’s team hung on, the away side started to get more and more frustrated at the lack of a breakthrough and things reached a head when both Achillier and Quiñónez received red cards for fouls on Wagner and Rhayner respectively, to leave Emelec with just nine men.
The extra space gave Fluminense a chance to put the game out of the Ecuadorians reach and they did just that with 6 minutes remaining when Rhayner broke down the right hand side and crossed for Carlinhos to tap into an empty net.
The Fluminense fans showed their support during the game for the two player’s found guilty of doping in the past week, Deco and Michael, with captain Fred echoing their sentiments.
He said: “Regardless of anything, we have to worry about the human side. Let’s support our brothers, Deco and Michael, which is more complicated, but I’m sure that they will come out of this.”
Goals: Fred (28 / 1Q), Carlinhos (39 / Q2)
FLUMINENSE (4-4-2): Diego Cavalieri; Bruno (Diguinho), Digão, Leandro Euzébio,Carlinhos; Edinho, Jean, Wagner, Thiago Neves (Rhayner); Wellington Nem, Fred (Samuel). Coach: Abel Braga
EMELEC (4-5-1): Esteban Dreer; John Narváez, Nasuti, Gabriel Achillier, Oscar Bagui; Pedro Quinonez, Polo Wila (Pablo Zeballos), Fernando Giménez, Marcos Mondaini, Enner Valencia (Caicedo); Marlon De Jesus (Fernando Gaibor). Coach: Gustavo Quinteros
Source: Globo Esporte
