Botafogo’s Performance against LDU Was Davide Ancelotti’s Worst, Presenter Believes; Mansur Points out Two ‘Sins’ of the Team

Botafogo’s display against LDU in the Libertadores on Thursday was deemed the worst under coach Davide Ancelotti. This was the opinion of presenter Felipe Diniz on the SporTV show “Troca de Passes” early Friday. “I had been getting excited about Botafogo under Davide Ancelotti. I think today’s game, in football terms, was worse than the loss to Cruzeiro. I believe it was Botafogo’s worst performance under Davide Ancelotti. Little creativity, little objectiveness, little inspiration in attack… It wasn’t that engaging team that it’s nice to see Botafogo play, especially at Nilton Santos. I found Botafogo’s football poor and disappointing,” said Diniz.

Commentator Carlos Eduardo Mansur agreed and pointed out two ‘sins’ that weighed heavily on the team’s poor performance: trying to speed up plays too much all the time and the spacing between sectors. “Botafogo’s performance was truly bad. The game started under the best possible circumstances against an opponent that in theory would defend, with a goal at 14 seconds. Botafogo started 1-0 up. From then on, I don’t know if it’s still a trace of a team trying to form… The fact is that Botafogo had some sins that harmed them greatly. First, when regaining the ball, they almost always tried to play very quickly vertically, elongating the pass. The result was almost always loss of possession, without giving the team time to recover, and Botafogo split into two. You’ll remember few moments where the game stopped for construction in midfield,” he began.