Depleted Corinthians face away deciders, seek turnaround | OneFootball

Missing some of its main starters and experiencing inconsistency, Corinthians faces a series of two consecutive ‘decisive’ away matches and is looking to turn things around. First, Timão faces Vasco da Gama in the 21st round of the Brazilian Championship, where the team is in a complicated situation. Then, they take on Athletico-PR in the first leg of the Copa do Brasil quarterfinals.

In the Brazilian Championship, Corinthians is going through a delicate moment and hasn’t won in six rounds, with three losses and three draws. The São Paulo club sits in 14th place, with 22 points—just three points ahead of Vitória, who is at the top of the relegation zone.

Thus, Timão will play another direct clash in the fight against relegation, this time against Vasco, who are also very close to the Z4. Besides the importance of breaking their winless streak in the league and getting back to winning after six games, a victory would also be crucial to ease the pressure and boost morale for the Copa do Brasil.

Corinthians, in fact, is banking on its good recent record against Vasco to try to come out on top against the Rio team. In the last 15 matches between the teams, Timão has won 11 times, with three draws. Cruzmaltino has only won once.

The offensive and defensive sectors of the São Paulo club also tend to perform well against Vasco. In this same span of 15 matches, Corinthians scored 32 goals and conceded 12. Thus, the team relies on these good numbers to get back to winning ways in the league. The match kicks off this Sunday at 4 p.m. (Brasília time) at São Januário.

The big problem is that, for this Sunday’s match, Timão will be without two key players from its starting attack: Yuri Alberto and Memphis. In addition, Dorival will also be without the injured Carrillo, José Martínez, and Hugo. This quintet will also be absent for the first leg of the Copa do Brasil.

Corinthians tries to ‘come through unscathed’ against Athletico-PR for a shot at the title

After facing Vasco over the weekend, Corinthians also has another decisive match ahead, this time in the Copa do Brasil. Timão visits Athletico-PR at 9:30 p.m. this Wednesday at Arena da Baixada, in the first leg of the quarterfinals.

With the first match being away, Corinthians has the option to try to ‘come through unscathed’ and seek qualification at home, with the support of the Fiel Torcida. This doesn’t mean Timão will give up on playing their game, but a draw, for example, wouldn’t be a bad result.

Corinthians also has a trump card to try to come through unscathed: they haven’t conceded a goal in this edition of the Copa do Brasil. In four matches (two against Novorizontino and two against Palmeiras), Timão managed to contain rival attacks and showed defensive solidity.

The Copa do Brasil is the only chance Corinthians has to win another title in 2025—especially since, as mentioned above, their situation in the league is not good. Precisely because of this, there’s some doubt as to whether the team will prioritize the knockout tournament or Série A.

The fact is that, in the coming days, Corinthians will have two important away matches and will need to overcome their poor record as visitors this season if they want to come away with good results. In 24 matches, there have been eight wins, eight draws, and eight losses, with a 44.4% success rate, as well as 21 goals scored and 28 conceded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.