Carioca Championship 2024 - Final - Second Leg

Last Sunday, Flamengo and Nova Iguaçu played the final match of the 2024 Carioca Championship. The result of 1x0 in favor of the team commanded by Tite only confirmed what was already expected and the rubro-negros are now state champions, thanks to a campaign marked by its defensive stability. So, let’s finish our coverage of Cariocão by talking about what we can analyze from the final’s statistics.

Match Analysis

Once more, Flamengo didn’t concede any goals during the match, equalizing Fluminense’s historic mark (in 1911) of just one goal conceded in the entire tournament. Repeating the script from the first leg, the rubro-negro’s defense prevented Nova Iguaçu from developing great chances, as they managed only 5 shots from inside the box and had a xG of just 0.7.

Although the Gávea team followed the high defensive standard shown throughout the competition, the attacking sector was way less objective than usual, with a xG of 1.64 and 10 shots from inside the box. Compared to the inspired performance of the attack in the first leg (xG of 3.35 and 16 shots inside the box), there was a considerable drop in performance, certainly associated with the interest in managing the advantage created in the first encounter.

Highlights

Despite a relatively uneventful game, there were players with performances worth highlighting. On Flamengo's side, defender Léo Pereira kept up his high standards and was instrumental in stopping the Baixada side's attack, with 4 tackles won and only 1 dribble conceded. It's also worth highlighting the player's role in creating plays, as he had 14 successful long balls (82% success rate). In addition to him, left winger Bruno Henrique came on in the second half and scored the winning goal for his team, with an impressive finish of just 0.05 xG.

For the team from Baixada, right-winger Xandinho put in a great attacking performance, with 5 shots, 100% of his dribbles correct and adding 0.60 xG to Nova Iguaçu's 0.70 total. Another highlight was goalkeeper Fabrício, who made 5 saves from inside the area.

Finally, after three months of competition, the Carioca Championship is over. Looking at the tournament as a whole, we can see that the two finalists really were the great teams of the tournament. Flamengo, for their consistency and defensive solidity, and Nova Iguaçu, who stood up to the big teams in Rio de Janeiro with a much smaller budget, revealing very competent players and coaches.