Flamengo ‘topple’ European club manager, find out why

Erik ten Hag is no longer the coach of Bayer Leverkusen (GER). Announced by the club in May, the coach was dismissed this Monday (01). The Dutch manager's brief stint at the German club is partly due to the Flamengo U-20 team. After all, during the Bavarian team's preseason, the Most Beloved handed them a resounding 5-1 thrashing at Gávea, creating a tense atmosphere among the fans even before the official debut.

On July 18, the Flamengo U-20 team showed no mercy to Bayer's professionals. With a show by Matheus Gonçalves (who scored one goal) and Lorran (who also found the net), Mengão steamrolled their opponent. Arthur (own goal), Pedro Leão, and Gusttavo completed the rout. On that occasion, Erik ten Hag downplayed the scoreline.

“ The result looks bad, but I don’t care at all about preseason results. We should never lose, not even at this stage, but it was important for me not to lose players ,” said Ten Hag at the time. However, the European press did not hold back their criticism: “ disaster ,” “ below average performance ,” and “ from dream to nightmare ” were some of the headlines in the media.

After the thrashing by Flamengo U-20, Erik ten Hag managed only three official matches at the helm of Bayer Leverkusen. The team lost their Bundesliga opener to Hoffenheim (GER), drew with Werder Bremen (GER) in the same competition, and beat Sonnenhof (GER), from the fourth division, in the German Cup.

If the preseason friendly was not useful for Erik ten Hag’s work, on the other hand, the match served the Flamengo U-20 team well. After all, a month later, Bruno Pivetti’s squad won the Club World Cup in their category, defeating Barcelona (ESP) in the final after a 2-2 draw in regular time and triumphing on penalties.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.