greg . 2025-06-29 13:40:03

Insider: Botafogo coach Renato Paiva prioritises squad building after Club World Cup departure

Botafogo coach Renato Paiva has now shifted his focus decisively to squad development and the long-term process, following his squad’s elimination from the ongoing FIFA Club World Cup in the United States.

The Brazilians fell 1-0 to their longtime rivals Palmeiras in a fiercely contested Round of 16 fixture at Lincoln Field Arena, after 120 minutes of high-stakes contest.

Sole as the fixture seemed headed for a spotkick shootout, Paulinho’s strike in the 100th minute secured the victory for the Green and White, who will now face Premier Competition giants Chelsea.

In his post-fixture response, the Portuguese coach was asked by Betopick over the positives he took from the pipe versus the three-time Copa Libertadores champions and his goals moving forward.

Palmeiras edged to a victory over BotafogoStatsperform"No, it's.

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every fixture that we played, now we build a squad.

We keep building a squad.

Here (in the United States), we had few time to train.

We had few time which we don't have in Brazil," Paiva stated, highlighting the importance of continuous growth.

His strike will be to integrate the new signings into the squad and ensure that every athlete understands pair their individual roles and how they contribute to the overall squad dynamic.

"Fortunately, we will now have few days to train and to receive the new stars, to make them understand what they have to do — retaining and attacking — the relationship with their colleagues on the field.

 "We will have this time to work, to continue to build a real squad.

When we left Brazil, I felt that we were now a very good squad.

"In few difficult moments, our response was very good.

So, when we left Brazil, we were one squad.

Now that we return with this experience, we are another squad, still building the squad.

"And now, as I told you, working with the new stars and looking forward to the competitions that we have.

"Botafogo got off to a tough start in the competition, defeating Seattle Sounders FC in their first fixture before stunning reigning UEFA Champions Competition winners Paris Saint-Germain in their second fixture.

Regardless their 1-0 loss to Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid, they qualified as Group B runners-up and advanced to the knockout stage.

Nevertheless, coach Paiva expressed pride in his squad’s display on the global stage.

He told the media: "That is the first feeling as soon as we heard the whistle, and regardless of if we would victory or defeat, that would be it.

 "Pride for what our stars have done, what the technical staff did, pride that we were playing versus a tough squad that we knew very well.

 "We knew that this fixture would be settled under details.

There were two moments for this fixture with Palmeiras coming in stronger as we expected.

We regained ball control and we came closer to their strike.

This was a first half with no strike opportunities.

"As the fixture went on and in the beginning of the second half, I brought in fresh stars who were never in tune with the rest of the squad.

But we felt it was time as the fixture went on to do something different.

 "We had our opportunities but we were unable to finish them.

On one end we are sad, on the other side, every stars share my feeling of pride over everything that we have done.

"Palmeiras vs Botafogo drive chartStatsperformAlthough Paiva praised Palmeiras' power, he admitted he wasn’t surprised by the way they approached the fixture versus his squad.

He added: "There is absolutely no surprise, this is a very compact squad.

It’s a squad that is being fine-tuned for a while, a squad that plays with their eyes closed.

"We analysed them, this is the third squad that were making crosses to the 18-yard box.

When Palmeiras does that, they put three to four stars in the finishing area.

Sometimes, they would switch the ball and have two passes to put the ball in the strike area.

 "We knew we would go for man-to-man situations.

I think we were able to control them for few part of the time, but it was essentially what we expected (from them).

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