Flamengo were the superior side as they beat Botafogo 1-0 at the Nilton Santos stadium on Saturday. Fla won the game via a goal by Everton Ribeiro in the second half.
Flamengo dominated most of the first half on the upper foot but it was the home side who had the first opportunity in only 30 seconds of the game.
Bruno Nazário and Pedro Raul combined for an attempt on goal but it failed to hit the target.
Botafogo relied more on counter-attacks, giving Flamengo the opportunity to take over the game. Fla also had attempts with Bruno Henrique, Pedro and Arrascaeta but also failed to score.
The second half started like the first; Flamengo having the possession and Botafogo sitting back trying the take their opportunity from the counter-attacks. In the 55th minute, Everton Ribeiro broke the deadlock in the game. Rogério Ceni‘s team pressured the home side to force a mistake off Marcinho to gift Gerson the ball. Ribeiro then received a brilliant pass and opened up the scoring for his team in the game.
Both sides would go on to get a red card with Victor Luis reducing Botafogo to 10 men in the 85th minute before Gustavo Henrique of Flamengo got his as well four minutes later.
The victory puts Flamengo level on points with Atlético-MG who sits two points behind league leaders São Paulo. On the other hand, Botafogo have gone eight games without a win and find themselves one from bottom with only 20 points.
For their next outing, Botafogo will play next Wednesday against São Paulo while Flamengo will host Santos in Maracanã on Sunday.
