Beaten 11 against 10 for 85 minutes against Olympique de Marseille (3-2), Olympique Lyonnais is currently in a complicated situation. Only 14th in Ligue 1, the Rhone club begins its European adventure this evening against Olympiakos. On the side of its owner John Textor, everything is not going ideally. Wanting to buy the English club Everton, he saw the owners of AS Roma, the Friedkins, take control of this matter. However, things are going very well with another of his teams: Botafogo.
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Remaining in a frustrating 2023 season where the club had dominated 2/3 of the season before collapsing in the home stretch, Botafogo is posting a solid and more regular 2024 financial year. Helped by an ambitious transfer window including the arrival of Luiz Henrique for 16 million euros last winter and reinforcements this summer from Thiago Almada (Atlanta United), Matheus Martins (Udinese), Vitinho (Burnley), Alex Telles ( former player of Porto and Manchester United) and Allan (ex of Napoli and Everton) for 37.5 million euros, Botafogo gave itself the means to achieve its ambitions under the orders of Artur Jorge who had achieved a superb work with Braga.
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Strengthening a team which finished fifth last season by dominating the championship for a long time, Botafogo took longer to settle at the top of the ranking, but has stabilized with good regularity in its results. The Brazilian club also has four victories in a row in the Brazilian championship and is three points ahead of Palmeiras as well as four points ahead of Fortaleza. With eleven days remaining, optimism is present for the Rio de Janeiro club which should at least finish on the podium (4th Flamengo is 11 points behind). In search of a Brazilian championship title which has eluded it since 1995, Botafogo is also aiming for its first continental title.
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After dismissing Palmeiras and Sao Paulo in the Copa Libertadores, the Brazilian club finds itself semi-finalist in the competition and should play against the winner of Penarol – Flamengo. Advantage for the moment to the Uruguayans who won the first leg 1-0 and who host the Rio de Janeiro club. The other semi-final pits Atlético Mineiro against River Plate. This is the first time in 51 years that Botafogo has reached this stage of the competition. Enough to allow coach Artur Jorge to savor after the meeting: “we saw Botafogo be “the fire” and we got what we wanted. We had the opportunity to score more goals, we only scored one, but we had the composure, the serenity and the skill to be superior and to be again, more than 50 years later , in the semi-final of an international competition.»
The Portuguese coach then supported his ambitions given the work carried out this season. “We work a lot. We can say that we seek luck which requires so much work, but we seek this luck with dedication, with commitment, with great sacrifices every day. We deprive ourselves of many things to be able to obtain the results we have obtained. And it’s a fair reward, for me, because I’m happy to see the work reflected in the results of what we’ve achieved, but I’m even happier for the players, for what they’ve done, for the how they got involved. I am very satisfied for them, because they deserve all the good moments that have happened and, certainly, better moments will come, because this team has ambition“, he continued. Now all that remains is to translate that with at least one title for Botafogo. If the situation at OL is not ideal, John Textor will at least be able to be satisfied with what his Brazilian club is achieving.
Pub. THE 09/26/2024 7:02 p.m.
Update 09/26/2024 9:57 p.m.
