Caio watches his
Brazil teammates in the
Premier League every week. Now he hopes to play them in the Club
World Cup final
By Joshua Law for Yellow & Green Football
River Plate were winning 1-0 and the Copa Libertadores final seemed to be drifting away from Flamengo. River had defended heroically for 88 minutes and it was difficult to see where a goal would come from for the Brazilian side. Did Rodrigo Caio’s belief ever wane? “No, no,” he says emphatically. “I believed we would equalise. There were five minutes and I thought: ‘We can get a goal, we can do it. How many games have we failed to score in this year? Not many.’ That made me believe. The ball will drop our way. We’re going to equalise, we’ll go to extra time. We’ll win in extra time, on penalties, I don’t know.”
As it turns out, they did not need extra time or penalties. Gabriel Barbosa poked in an equaliser in the 89th minute and blasted home the winner in the 92nd minute. It was his 43rd goal of the season and the goal Flamengo fans had been waiting for 38 years to see. For the first time since Zico lifted the trophy in 1981, Flamengo were continental champions.