Flamengo and Corinthians will meet on Sunday at 17:30 at the Maracanã in a match that could reshape the top of the Campeonato Brasileiro. The game is part of the 27th round, with TV Globo, ge tv and Premiere carrying it live and ge following along in Tempo Real.
The timing matters because Flamengo enters the match in second place, two points behind Palmeiras after Palmeiras beat São Paulo on Saturday and took back first place. Flamengo has also arrived on the back of wins over Remo and Independiente del Valle, including a 2-0 result in Quito in the Conmebol Libertadores quarterfinals, while Corinthians is trying to stop a slide that has brought four straight league defeats against Cruzeiro, Coritiba, Santos and Chapecoense.
For Flamengo, the bigger question is not whether the team can compete at the top, but who is available to do it. Evertton Araújo is out with a grade 3 injury in the adductor of his left thigh and is expected back only in November, which narrows the room for rotation in a stretch that already asks a lot from a side chasing first place.
Corinthians arrives with a very different problem. The club has 32 points after beating Bragantino on 9 August, but its league form has fallen apart since then, and the priority now sits elsewhere after a 1-1 draw with Estudiantes in La Plata in the first leg of the Conmebol Libertadores quarterfinals. That is why the squad for Sunday is expected to be heavily changed, with Raniele suspended for the return leg, Allan unavailable because he is on loan from Flamengo and will not play without payment of a fine, André in physical transition, Gustavo Henrique, Memphis Depay and André Carrillo under load control, André Ramalho recovering from labyrinthitis, Yuri Alberto being treated for a partial rupture of fibrosis in the posterior muscle of the right thigh, Zakaria Labyad recovering from surgery on his left knee and Kayke also sidelined after surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee.
Wilton Pereira Sampaio will referee the match, with Victor Hugo Imazu dos Santos and Leone Carvalho Rocha as assistants and Gilberto Rodrigues Castro Junior on VAR. Flamengo and Corinthians are not just playing for three points on Sunday; they are playing from opposite forms, opposite schedules and with very different margins for error, and that should make the Maracanã kickoff feel larger than a routine league date.
