Paulo Sousa criticises referee after Flamengo drop points at Ceará | OneFootball

Flamengo manager Paulo Sousa cursed his side’s luck after they conceded an injury-time equaliser in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Ceará.

A brace of first-half Willian Arão headers, either side of Steven Mendoza’s strike for the hosts, seemed set to secure three precious points for the Rubro-Negro.

However, Nino Paraíba’s stoppage-time free-kick made its way directly to the net to deny Flamengo what would have been just a second win for them in this season’s Brasileirão.

“It is always difficult to play here, the weather is very hot,” Sousa said afterwards.

“The Ceará team is also very qualified, with great intensity. Unfortunately, we took the goal at the very end. We were defending very well,” he added.

There was plenty of criticism of Hugo Souza in the aftermath of the late leveller, with the giant goalkeeper’s poor positioning certainly a factor.

But the Mengão’s boss felt that goal should have been little more than a consolation for Ceará, after Fla defender Pablo rattled the crossbar with a header and striker Gabriel Barbosa was denied a strong penalty claim in the closing stages.

“The penalty could be 3-1. I’m not one to talk about refereeing, but this is our second game in which we’ve been harmed. At Botafogo we could make it 1-0, and against Ceará we could make it 3-1 to finish the game,” Sousa argued.

His protestations are unlikely to cut much ice with Flamengo supporters, who are growing increasingly frustrated with their side languishing 14th in the table.