Mancini reveals secret of victory over Cruzeiro

Vagner Manciniwhich commands the America-MGwas sincere about how he nullified the opponent, cruiseat the Mineiro Championship and secured the second spot for the tournament decision. It is worth mentioning that Coelho obtained the two possible triumphs in the semifinals against Raposa, by the scores of 2 to 0 (as a visitor) and 2 to 1 (as a principal).

“The strategy was to lower one of the wingers, forming a line of five, setting up the midfield in a block with five players, a line of three and two, precisely for the cruise entering with the side defenders in our field and there was no game option”, highlighted the coach. Mancini stressed that the plan worked well, despite the alternatives that were sought by Cruzeiro in both clashes.

“In some moments, they even found some passes, because it is difficult to change the way of playing to adapt to the opponent. O America he had been playing in a different way, and in those games he played in 5-3-2, neutralizing a good part of Cruzeiro’s tactical structure”, added Mancini. In addition, the coach highlighted that the opponent’s strong point is the midfield and that he studied to neutralize the area.

How does Cruzeiro play? He has two defensive midfielders and two midfielders who lean on the striker. It forms a pentagon there, which is exactly where you can’t score, and the ball goes in the whole game. We analyzed their team well, so in these last two games we neutralized the center of the field and made our opponent use the wings more”.

After the match, Mancini also summarized the outcome of the match: “It was a game more or less within what we expected. Cruzeiro, at the beginning of the game, launched ahead as it did in the other two games. We, today, were not one that pleased me in terms of speed, possession of the ball. Not that he played badly, but he didn’t play as well as we could have played and exploited some points that the game gave us”.