10 Jun 2009
By Geishy Rondon, Caracas FC Press



Brazilian side Gremio wil have sweated and burned up a lot of energy by the time they meet Caracas FC on June 17 in their Copa Santander Libertadores quarterfinal return leg (first leg 1-1) in Porto Alegre in midst of a sometimes difficult domestic campaign – doing well as they are in the Libertadores but not always so well in their local tournament.

Managed by Paulo Cesar Autuori, Gremio are proving something of an enigma.  

On May 29 they drew 1-1 against Caracas in Venezuela to give themselves every chance of making the semi-finals thanks to a Fabio Santos 74th minute strike which cancelled out Gabriel Cichero’s second minute goal for the Reds.

On May 31, the Brazilians then lost in the last minute in a league encounter at EC Vitoria having been reduced to 10 men with another four players receiving yellow cards, in this way suffering another away defeat.

However on June 4 it was back to winning ways as they beat Nautico 3-0 thanks to a brace from Willamis de Souza and Maximiliano Lopez.

In their next match, Gremio take on Fulminese FC and after that it’s the showdown with Caracas.

The Reds will be looking to become the first Venezuelan side in the modern format of the Copa Santander Libertadores to reach the semi-final stage.