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RIO DE JANEIRO: Flamengo achieved a record 36th Rio State Championship with a 1-0 victory in the final round against Fluminense, which he beat 2–1 in the first leg.
A goal through Vitinho in the 95th minute of Wednesday night (July 15) secured the triumph of the legendary Rio de Janeiro club, protector champion and 2019 Copa Libertadores holder, the South American of the European Champions League.
The Carioca State League Championship was the first to resume in South America on June 18 after the coronavirus pandemic stopped football on the continent.
Among the 26 state leagues in Brazil, the championship in Santa Catarina, in the south of the country, restarted last week before being interrupted three days later after the discovery of 14 Covid-19 cases among the staff and players at Chapecoense.
On Monday, the Ceará championship in the Northeast also resumed and other states could follow soon.
The Rio championship resumed amid controversy, with Flamengo insisting on the game, while Fluminense and Botafogo, two of the city’s 4 big clubs, threatened to boycott, saying that at the height of the pandemic, football is not a priority.
Both were forced to play and expressed their opposition on banners and T-shirts.
Fluminense, which holds 31 titles, refused to play their first two games in their own old stadium, the Maracana, so patients in a box hospital in the same stadium as the stadium can continue to receive treatment.
Thursday is the third “Fla-Flu”, Brazil’s most prominent classic, played in a week in an empty Maracana. Last Wednesday, Fluminense won the Rio Cup for consequences after a 1–1 draw.
The state of Rio de Janeiro is the peak time affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, only in Sao Paulo.
According to the government’s most recent bulletin, at least 11,757 other people have died in Rio de Janeiro, out of more than 74,000 deaths in the country.