Palmeiras_Fan

I guess so. Still, those ones are elite CB's. Domingos is widely regarded as one of the 3 greatest in the history of all of South American football, for example.

Well, it seems to me that Europeans are starting to take this competition more seriously as it progresses. Good to see that. I believe it will grow in importance in the following editions. By the way, Chelsea seems to be forming a young team full of talent. Nice prospects for the future: in the next few years, you'll have a powerful team in hand, which will be able to be dominant for a good period of time (many of the players are not even close to their peaks yet).

I'd probably rank him in the Top 5 all-time greatest Brazilian centre-backs by now. He's up there with the likes of Domingos da Guia, Mauro Ramos, Luís Pereira and Aldair in the Brazilian football pantheon.

I believe good introductions by both Estêvão (ex-Palmeiras) and João Pedro (ex-Fluminense). A lot of coincidences. João Pedro spent 8-9 years at Fluminense. All of his youth career and a small part of his senior career.

So typical...

Yep. João Pedro was formed by Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro (from 2011 to 2020, when he made his move to Watford).

By the way, you guys have an ex-Fluminense player on your team (João Pedro). You may count on the "ex-law" working for you today.

So what do we call it? 😆

Hey, guys. Good luck today. Didn't show up since our encounter last week, as I was truly p**sed off with the loss. HAHAHA! We were awful on the first half, but managed to balance things out on the second half. I believe Palmeiras was at its best moment in the game when our GK did what he did and cost us the match. Anyway, you guys deserved the win, especially for the first half when the difference in performance was evident and you were clearly superior (which doesn't make me any less unhappy with our keeper's ridiculous fail). I will be supporting you now against Fluminense, as I don't want to be the only Brazilian losing against Chelsea. So, please... WIN THIS! 😅

Does that mean we're going to be even on the absences? Three on each side?

All right, the day has arrived. I know for you guys this might be seen as just a little more than a "friendly" match, but for Palmeiras, this is very probably the single MOST IMPORTANT game in the club's history. And we're not talking about any club. We're talking about the most successful Brazilian club, the one with the biggest amount of Brazilian league titles, three times winner of the most important continental competition (Libertadores Cup), that has one of the 5 largest fanbases in all of South America and a history that stretches back 111 years. So that's how big this is being perceived. I hope we have a good game. 🐗

For Europeans, this might be just another tournament. But for any other club from any other part of the world (including Brazil), this is literally the most important competition EVER created in this sport. This literally blows out ANY other tournament that has ever been disputed, even the Libertadores Cup or the previous Intercontinental Cup. Well, the name says it all: Club World Cup. So bare in mind that's the mindset of the teams going into it. If Palmeiras wins this, it might very well be crowned not only the biggest Brazilian club but the biggest South American club. LITERALLY. So that's what's in dispute here. That's how much this is worth and is being perceived. It's a lifetime game that's coming. By the way, I believe the 3 favourites to win this are all on the other side: Real Madrid, PSG and Bayern Munchen. Personally, I believe the best team so far has been Bayern. Very impressed with their performances, they seem to take it very seriously (as Germans usually do). And Al Hilal was truly amazing yesterday. It's an unbelieveably strong side (many consider it to be the most powerful club IN THE WORLD outside Europe, even above the Brazilians). Up to this point, best game in the competition against Manchester City. I'm loving this so far.

Weverton is still the keeper. Marcos Rocha is still on the team, but is now a substitute to Agustín Giay. Gustavo Gómez is the captain and an icon of this whole era of the club. He was sent off against Botafogo and will not be able to play against Chelsea. Luan left and Murilo is now the starter. But he got injured in the game against Inter Miami (group stage) and is out. Piquerez is still the left-back (one of the best in his position in South America), but received a second yellow card and will also not be able to play. Danilo was sold to Nottigham Forest in 2023. Now the position is taken by Aníbal Moreno/Emiliano Martínez (both have been fighting for the spot). Zé Rafael has left (became a historcial player for the club) and now his position is taken by Richard Ríos (one of the best Colombian players in the world today, who will very possibly be playing for a big club in Europe in the second semester). Raphael Veiga is still part of the team, but has dropped a lot in performance in the last year. The starters today are Maurício or Felipe Anderson, both of whom arrived last year. Dudu was probably the best player we had in the last 25 years, but got old and left. Estêvão took his place. Gustavo Scarpa left to Nottingham Forest together with Danilo in 2023. Rony has left and now his spot is taken by Vítor Roque (signed with Barcelona in 2023 and just returned to Brazil) and José López. Paluinho (ex- Bayer Leverkusen) is still recovering from an injury he has sustained since last year. He is an elite player in Brazilian and South American football, but can only play 30-40 minutes per match. That's why he never starts the games. In the last match, he basically just went in to socre the goal, decided the game and then was taken off. He is still not 100% to be able to play the full match and it has been like that in the last months.

That is widely regarded as the strongest Palmeiras side in the last 5 years. It is the team that won 2 Libertadores Cups, 2 Brazilian Leagues and 1 Brazil Cup, besides other trophies (3 Paulista Championships, 1 Southamerican Recopa, 1 Brazilian Supercup). All between 2020 and 2023. The best version of this team was exactly the one that faced Chelsea in 2022. The current team is also strong, and actually better in terms of options. The previous team didn't have very good substitutes and that was key for the drop in our performance in the second half against you. The susbstitutes were much worse than the starters. Today, we still have a good starting team (many players from the previous team are still there), but now the issue is that it doesn't function as solidly as it did before, as time has passed and many new players have been integrated and others have left. On one side, we have more and better options on the bench. On the other side, the team as a whole is still not functioning as it did before. And of course: we have 3 important players out due to cards and injury. NB: Luan (CB) was the one that was sent off at the end of the extra time in that match.

The whole defense line is out, except for the right-back. Gustavo Gómez (captain of the team and an iconic figure in the club) was sent off against Botafogo, Piquerez (left-back, one of the best in his position in South America) got a second yellow card also against Botafogo and Murilo (CB) suffered an injury against Inter Miami. All three are essential for the team and have been a big part of this very successful era of Palmeiras. We are in trouble for this game.