Botafogo showed the strength of its team, and reversed the score against Corinthians after falling behind in the score, but conceded a draw at the end of the second half. The result of the match, valid for the 36th round of the Brazilian League, was a lively 2-2 yesterday at the New Quimica Arena. The team’s reaction came through the feet of Alvaro Montoro and Jordan Barrera, who recently signed with Al-Jawaher and have been recovering from injuries for a long time. With a direct place in the Libertadores on the horizon until the final points tie, the pair are turning heads for a redraft aimed at raising the team’s standard for 2026.
With this result, Botafogo remains ahead of Fluminense in the standings, and maintains fifth place in the classification zone for the group stage of the South American Championship, with 59 points. After conceding Ranelli’s goal following a mistake by goalkeeper Leo Link in the sixth minute, the Rio team changed its position in the second half, switching with Quiabano and Jordan Parreira, but Gustavo Henrique left everything as it was.
-We play a game of character and courage. This is what I ask of the team. It could go wrong, like the first goal. But if we want to play, it can happen. After that I was satisfied with the way we continued to play. “We felt we could have won the game in the second half,” David Ancelotti said.
The two teams tried to achieve victory by introducing players who almost played a distinguished role in the confrontation. Montoro assisted Botafogo with both goals. While Vitinho did the same thing with Corinthians in the end. At the start of the play, Raniel caught the ball almost from the baseline before it headed to the other side, passing partially across the final line, causing a complaint. But VAR confirmed the goal.
It took time for Botafogo to find their feet. In the absence of names such as Danilo, Barboza, Bastos, Nathan Fernandes and Matheus Martins and without the suspended Vitinho, he was only able to finish the match in the 38th minute, when he headed Correa home from a closed corner kick. In the final stage, Montoro passed to Quiabano, who appeared strongly to equalize. The Argentine then passed Artur, who sent a cross. The ball bounced and Parreira scored a wonderful goal with a direct shot to turn the match on its head.
Montoro was one of the most prominent stars of the team led by David Ancelotti when he moved to the Argentina national team to participate in the World Youth Cup. The attacking midfielder fractured his right collarbone during the U-20 World Cup and underwent surgery last month. It came back little by little in November. Barrera suffered a muscle injury in his thigh while playing with the Colombian national team in the Under-20 World Cup as well. On the other hand, the youngster has not yet been able to impress Glorioso, but he made a good response, with effective moves against Corinthians.
During the duel, Savarino and Montoro had to leave, due to pain, and they could be a problem in the next round, against Cruzeiro, on Thursday. Botafogo will play without the suspended Santiago Rodriguez, Matteo Ponte and Givenho. Santi and Ponte received third yellow cards, while Givinho, who was on the bench, was sent off during the mix-up between Marsal and Guay Negao.