For Fluminense, victory in the derby motivates the pursuit of a second title.

With most of the classic matches scheduled for the last two rounds of each half of the Brasileirão season, Fla-Flu was one of the few that remained in the middle of the table. Even so, Sunday's match at Engenhão took on the air of a decisive game. Tied on 44 points, Flamengo and Fluminense are vying for a spot in next year's Libertadores Cup. However, one of them could, in case of victory, also get closer to the title race.

 "Whoever wins will be in the title race, but whoever doesn't win will have their motivation waned. Whether they win or lose, they'll believe until the end, but Corinthians and Vasco are the leaders, and if whoever is ahead doesn't lose, we'll never catch them," commented midfielder Marquinho of Fluminense this Thursday.

 Another player who spoke about Fluminense's chances of definitively entering the fight for the bicampeonato (second consecutive championship) was right-back Mariano. "Our main objective is to go for the lead, for the title. We can get there, we have this difficult game, we know we can win if we play the way we've been playing. We can take another step to get closer to the leaders," commented the full-back, who expects a "very beautiful" derby for the fans, due to the balance between the teams and the need both have to win.