Flamengo earned a dramatic last gasp win away in Ecuador last night as Paulinho’s injury time goal secured a 2-1 win over Emelec and kept alive the Brazil sides hopes of qualifying for the Copa Libertadores knock-out phase.
The Rio de Janeiro team needed a win or a draw to maintain any hope of finishing in the top two of Group 7 and made the perfect start when they scored after just nine minutes.
Alecsandro made no mistake from the penalty spot after an Emelec player had handled and that gave Mengão a great chance of keeping their chances alive
The Ecuadorians found a response though when they were given a spot kick of their own, which former Everton forward Denis Stracqualursi duly dispatched to leave the game evenly poised.
A defeat would have been catastrophic from here so Flamengo at the very least needed to hold on for a point but deep into injury time they snatched all three.
Paulinho ran onto the ball down the right and finished magnificently to seal a huge away win and leave everything up for grabs in the group.
Mengão’s destiny is now in their own hands as they only require a victory against León next Wednesday to progress in the competition, anything less than three points though and they’ll be out.
