Millonarios and Internacional faced each other in the second matchday of the Copa Libertadores U20. In the first half, Millonarios profited from many mistakes by the Internacional defence. This also led to the first goal. Millonarios play in a 4-3-3 and liked to sit deeper, trying to profit from Internacional’s mistakes. Internacional dominated the second half with a lot of possession (also in a 4-2-3-1) but failed to create many chances, even though Estêvão’s crosses from dead-ball situations were really dangerous.
Youth Ratings
1 – Ready for the first team
2 – Good, potential to be first team
3 – Decent, could make first team squad
4 – Decent potential, unlikely to make it to first team
5 – Unlikely to make first team
Vinicius Rangel
Player profile:
- Nationality: Brazilian
- Age: 17
- Date of birth: 30/04/2004
- Club: Internacional
- Career: Internacional
- Position: Left-Back
- Preferred foot: Left
Vinicius Rangel played as a left-back in the match of Internacional against Millonarios. He stands at ~177cm and has a toned body type. Vinicius Rangel looked quick on the first meters and was capable of maintaining that speed over longer distances. He showed great athleticism and looked really smooth. Vinicius Rangel has good agility and showed good changes of direction. The Brazilian left-back has a good first touch when dealing with aerial passes, both when being put under pressure and when not being put under pressure. The left-back has good passing technique both over short and long distances. His passing was quite consistent and strong, but sometimes there was some miscommunication and this led to possession loss. Vinicius Rangel showed good press resistance, nutmegging his opponent before progressing the ball further up the pitch. Furthermore, the left-back liked to play strong, powerful diagonal passes into the attack. His crosses from deep lacked accuracy, but his crossing technique was quite good. Most of Vinicius Rangel’s touches were on his own half, occasionally operating as the third central defender in possession but not receiving the ball often. He only rarely joined the attack in the final third. Defensively, Vinicius Rangel was not overly tested and this is something I will watch later on in this tournament.
Rating – 4
I think Vinicius Rangel has decent potential but it won’t be for the first team of Internacional I think. In Serie A, he could play for some good teams in the future.
Estêvão
Player profile:
- Nationality: Brazilian
- Age: 20
- Date of birth: 03/02/2002
- Club: Internacional
- Career: Internacional
- Position: Right Winger
- Preferred foot: Left
Estêvão played as a right-winger in the match against Millonarios. Standing at ~176cm with a toned build, Estevão changes directions quickly and looked really smooth on the ball. He protected the ball well in the duels but he does not have quick acceleration and seemed to play the entire match at the same tempo. Technically, Estevão looked excellent. He has a good long passing technique and is really good at switching play from deep. His crossing technique is really good too, putting in dangerous free-kicks from the right-wing in a deep area. His delivery from dead-ball situations was outstanding and he created a lot of danger from there. Estevão’s short passing technique is good and he liked to play one-touch passes in small spaces. The Brazilian winger liked to carry the ball inside in deep areas before switching play. He changed up his positioning quite often, sometimes sticking close to the touchline or moving into the half-space. The winger liked to drop deep in the first phase of the build-up and came into possession a lot. The winger is tactically very intelligent, starting his run at the right times and spotting space well. However, I think Estevão could have more impact in the final third from open play. With his vision and technical ability, I think he could create even more chances.
Rating – 3
While I do think that Estêvão has a lot of potential, I think he needs to up his intensity and not solely rely on his technical ability. He needs to work on this. It will be hard for him to get a place in the starting line-up at Internacional anytime soon, but I am sure that he has a nice future ahead of him.
All other players of Internacional were watched too, but they failed to impress me and didn’t show much potential.