With the hopes of a third successive Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A title no longer in the cards, Flamengo will face Santos at the Maracana on Monday in their final home match of this league campaign.
Mengao are coming off a 1-1 draw versus Sport Recife on Friday, while Peixe came back to tie Internacional 1-1 as they sit in 13th place in the standings.
Match preview
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Two matches remain for Flamengo in this top flight campaign, with only pride and personal achievements to play for at this stage.
The Copa Libertadores runners-up will finish the year in second place, after Atletico Mineiro came back to beat Bahia on Thursday, ending their chances of retaining their Serie A crown.
You would not have known that this team had just lost their title on Friday as Mauricio Souza's side played aggressively from the opening whistle, although they only converted one of their seven targeted efforts.
The morale of this team must be pretty low at this point, seeing the kind of heartbreak that they have experienced, losing in extra time in the Copa Libertadores final and having their domestic championship reign come to an end, all in less than a week.
They have scored in 12 straight matches in all competitions and have not been shut out of a home fixture since a 0-0 draw against Cuiaba on October 17, as they lead the league in goals scored with 69.
This will be the first year since 2018 in which Urubu have not got their hands on a domestic or international trophy, but if they can earn one more point in either one of their final two encounters, then they will have outdone their total for points of 71 from their title-winning season a year ago.
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Picking up points away from home can be extremely valuable in the Brasileiro Serie A, and Santos have been able to do precisely that in recent weeks.
Last weekend, they were unlucky to only come away with a single point after an own goal from Luiz Felipe put them behind going into the interval.
Fabio Carille saw his side react well in the second half, drawing level within two minutes of the restart as they have now picked up six points in their previous four road fixtures, losing only once over that stretch.
It has been hard to notice at times that they traditionally employ a back three as their opponents seem to struggle when it comes to finding room in the Santos third of the field, thanks to some great work from their midfielders, who have a lot of pace and stamina to come back and cover that extra space.
The best that they can do from here on out is to hold onto a Copa Sudamericana position, currently in that final spot by a single point.
While they have been pretty solid defensively since the fall, there is a tendency for them to have some defensive meltdowns once in a while, as they experienced in their previous meeting with Flamengo, when they fell 4-0 in late August and allowed 11 shots on target.
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Team News
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Michael now has 15 goals domestically for Urubu after scoring their only goal against Recife on Friday, as Pedro collected his fifth assist on that play, drawing even with teammate Bruno Henrique.
Gabi, who began his career at Santos, sat out of their match earlier this week, and his old team will hope that they do not see him on the field on Monday as the Olympic Gold medallist with Brazil in 2016 scored a hat-trick in the first meeting of the season between these sides, with the fourth goal coming courtesy of Andreas Pereira, who is on loan from Manchester United.
There were several changes made to the Flamengo starting lineup on Friday as Hugo Souza started in goal instead of Diego Alves, the back four was completely different with Rene, David Luiz, Rodrigo Caio and Matheuzinho getting the call, while Michael, Bruno Henrique, Vitinho and Pedro also made it into the starting 11.
Marcos Leonardo bailed out his team last weekend, with the equaliser versus Internacional, his fourth of the campaign, one back of Carlos Sanchez and Marcos Guilherme for second on the team and two behind Marinho for the lead.
Kevin Malthus remains sidelined for Peixe with a cruciate ligament rupture which has kept him out of the lineup since early August.
Carille inserted three new faces into the starting 11 last Sunday as Madson replaced Marcos Guilherme in midfield, Leonardo was their central striker with Diego Tardelli sitting out, and Gabriel Pirani took the place of their leading goalscorer Marinho.
Flamengo possible starting lineup:
Alves; Rene, G. Henrique, Luiz, Matheuzinho; Pereira, Maia; Ribeiro, Michael, B. Henrique; Gabi
Santos possible starting lineup:
Paulo; Boza, Felipe, Kaiky; Braga, Sandry, Zanocelo, Madson; Raniel, M. Leonardo, Marinho
We say: Flamengo 3-0 Santos
As well as Santos have performed away from home in recent fixtures, the Maracana is a whole other kind of environment to have to contend with, and one in which Peixe have struggled in, winning only once in their previous six visits there, with Flamengo outscoring them 6-1 in the past three matches played in Rio between these sides.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Flamengo win with a probability of 74.4%. A draw had a probability of 16.8% and a win for Santos had a probability of 8.84%.
The most likely scoreline for a Flamengo win was 2-0 with a probability of 14.09%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (12.43%) and 3-0 (10.64%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (7.92%), while for a Santos win it was 0-1 (3.49%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 3.5% likelihood.
