The Rivalry of Offensive Football Coaches Fernando Diniz and Jorge Sampaoli: A Tactical Analysis of Their Four Encounters.

Coaches who value offensive football, Fernando Diniz and Jorge Sampaoli faced each other four times, twice in 2019 and the other half in the following season. The Argentine from Flamengo has a small advantage, with two wins against one of the tricolor rival. There was still a draw.

This Tuesday, at 9 pm, in Maracanã, Diniz and Sampaoli will perform the first Fla-Flu between them. The duel marks the first game for the round of 16 of the Copa do Brasil.

In the first year in Brazil, Jorge Sampaoli only managed Santos. The first confrontation with Fernando Diniz, who was at Fluminense, was played on May 2, 2019, for the second round of the Brazilian Championship.

A possible red-black embezzlement for this Tuesday, striker Pedro scored the tricolor goal in that duel. The problem is that Santos had already opened 2-0, with Sasha and Sánchez, and managed to hold the result at 2-1.

Fernando Diniz returned to Vila Belmiro at the end of the same Brazilian, but with a different shirt. He switched from Tricolor in Rio to São Paulo and got a better result in the reunion with Sampaoli. Sansão valid for the 33rd round of the competition ended in 1 to 1. Sánchez opened the scoring for Santos, and Daniel Alves gave final numbers to the game.

In the year that Flamengo surprised its rivals and won the eighth Brazilian championship by taking the lead only in the penultimate round, Sampaoli and Diniz, who managed Atlético-MG and São Paulo respectively, played duels with elastic scores.

In the first round, for the seventh round and with both inserted in the fight for the first positions, Atlético arrived with two consecutive defeats, while the tricolors were undefeated for three matches. Everything changed, and the steering wheel decided. In the first half, Ecuadorian Allan Franco scored twice. In the second, Jair closed the score: 3 to 0.

Diniz’s release would come with interest and correction. In the 26th round of the Brazilian Championship, São Paulo scored 3-0 in the famous “six-point game”. Tricolor, at that point isolated leader, had 50, while Galo, 46. A defeat would shorten the distance to one point.

Diniz’s men were better. In the first half, in a kick from outside the area, Igor Gomes opened the scoring. Already in the second half, the athletic Allan was expelled, and the Tricolor solved the parade. Gabriel Sara and Jonas Toró, in the final stretch of the match, closed the scoring.

São Paulo opened seven points in relation to the Rooster and looked like a champion. A series of stumbles, however, made Diniz’s team finish in fourth place, one behind Atlético. The title went to Flamengo.