April 25 – In their first defeat of 2024, Brazilian giants Flamengo went down 2-1 to Bolivar to cede the initiative in Group E of the Copa Libertadores to the Bolivian club.
At the altitude of La Paz, Flamengo, whose manager Tite (pictured) rotated his side and played a back three, had little of the ball and ran out of steam to end their run of 14 victories and six draws from 20 matches.
In the second minute, Chico gave the hosts the lead but Matias Vina equalised almost immediately. Near the hour mark, Bruno Savio handed Bolivar the lead again and this time there was no coming back for the visitors, even if they had 15 attempts on target.
Tite defended his decision to rest several first-team players saying: “The science has been there for a long time, it’s nothing new, it’s been there since the time I played. The responsibility is mine, because the team’s definition is mine, but I have a lot of clarity not to exhaust a player in a series of games and lose him afterwards. Technical quality starts to be lost, passes start to be missed.
“I respect the question, but science in football is nothing new, we just need to look for true information: risk and strategy. The choices were based on this, and the biggest responsibility lies with the coach, who picks the team.”
After three matches, Bolivar top the group with nine points while Flamengo sit in second with four points. Both Palestino of Chile and Millonarios of Colombia have one point, but play each other on Thursday.
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