William Batista analyzes three points in the Under-20 Brasileirão, takes stock of the work at Corinthians and projects the final sequence of the tournament

- By Fabio Luigi / Central do Timão Editorial

Corinthians entered the field last Wednesday afternoon (17) to face Vitória, at the Alfredo Schürig Stadium, Fazendinha, in a match valid for the 16th round of the classification phase of the 2026 Brazilian Under-20 Championship, and beat the opponent 2 x 1. Filhos do Terrão's goals were scored by midfielder Luiz Gustavo Bahia and striker Luiz Fernando.

The result placed Corinthians back in the G8 (classification zone for the quarter-finals of the category's Brasileirão) with 25 points - seven wins, four draws and five defeats, with 27 goals scored and 21 conceded. Moments after the final whistle, coach William Batista spoke exclusively to Central do Timão and answered whether he expected the Vitória team to create difficulties for Filhos do Terrão, who only broke the tie in the 43rd minute of the final stage.

Photo: Rodrigo Gazzanel/Agência Corinthians

In his response, the commander highlighted the quality of the opposing team which, despite having minimal chances of qualifying for the knockout phase, created difficulties for other teams and was gaining points away from home: "We expected it to be a difficult game. Vitória is coming off some good matches away from home, they play even better away from home than at home. They drew with Cruzeiro away, they drew with Palmeiras away, they scored a lot of points away from home, so we knew it was a team that plays well away from home. We expected it to be a difficult game, as I think it was."

"Of course there is the weight of responsibility on our side, of having to score the three points to get into the G8, as we managed to do. This, in turn, could have been a burden. Vitória plays almost without responsibility, because they no longer have a chance of qualifying. There is practically no chance of falling and that makes Vitória a little lighter in the game. I think we managed to build the important victory for us, for us to win today, as we managed to do", he began.

Afterwards, the Timãozinho commander also highlighted the team's superior campaign in this edition in relation to the years 2024 and 2025, when the team fought in the last positions, having been at serious risk of relegation last season. In the first year, when they had not yet been relegated, Alvinegro was in 18th place with 18 points in 19 matches. In the second, in turn, he finished in 15th place with 20 points in 19 games. The Parque São Jorge club has not qualified for the Brasilerão knockout stage since 2023, when it fell to Palmeiras in the semi-final.

"We have 25 points, with three games to go, within the G8. I think it's important to remember that in the last two years of the category, in 2024, for example, Corinthians, I think they had 16, 17 points. But it's a good thing there wasn't relegation at the time. In the past, they only had 20 points, only saved themselves at the very end, and we're managing to fight there (up there) until the end. We went through a moment of a little unstable, six rounds ago, we had a lot of absences, and now we have an almost complete group again, so we're happy with the victory and being able to get the team into the G8 again", he continued.

He then commented on his expectations for the last three rounds of the first phase of the Brasileirão U20, where Corinthians will face Cruzeiro and Juventude, away from home, in addition to Flamengo, inside Parque São Jorge. Regarding the next opponent, which is precisely Cruzeiro, next Saturday (20), William will meet Mairon César, coach of the Minas Gerais team who was his assistant during the América-MG days.

"I know Cruzeiro well, right? I spent five years in Minas (at América-MG) and Cruzeiro's coach was my assistant for four years. Mairon (César). It's a club that I know a lot against a coach that I know a lot, who was my assistant. They're going to be difficult games, there's no easy game, today was a difficult game. We wait game by game, do our best, study well what we can do in relation to Cruzeiro first, then Flamengo and Juventude finally, so that when the nineteenth round ends we are within the G8 and ready to fight in the knockout stages, which is our desire", he continued.

Finally, he evaluated his work in the Corinthians youth categories, which is close to completing one year, as he was hired at the beginning of August 2025 to replace Orlando Ribeiro. At that time, Timãozinho was going through a turbulent time, facing problems in the formation of the Under-20 team, having to resort to some athletes from the Under-17, and had just finished the campaign below expectations in the national tournament.

At that time, Alvinegro only had to compete in the Campeonato Paulista category, in which they ended up being eliminated by Santos in the round of 16. In this way, William Batista led Corinthians, officially, in just five games between August and December, until the start of the Copa São Paulo, in January of this year.

In the biggest grassroots tournament in Brazil, Timão, the biggest champion of the Copinha, fell in the second phase, after a 2 x 1 defeat to Guarani, in Jáu. The commander also highlighted the work carried out by the department's executive, Erasmo Damiani, who arrived at Parque São Jorge in October 2025. For the Under-20s, Batista has 13 wins, six draws and seven defeats, which represents a 58% success rate. In addition, 37 goals were scored and 29 conceded.

"At first, until the Copinha, it was much more diagnosis than anything else, together with the management people, (Erasmos) Damiani, because I arrived in August, that is, four months until the Copinha, but I played five games, so there were few games worth three points. And then post-Copinha there, we had a better diagnosis of what our team was, because of what we needed to do in terms of release that we released and bring other players like we did, and then try to enhance what we had too. It's not easy, it's complex, because you take on a giant team like Corinthians, with a huge demand to develop, form and also win, important for the club, in which it had little sporting results in the last two years, results that are not worthy of what Corinthians is, some players who rose to the professional level due to the need for transfer ban: Dieguinho and Gui Negão, for example."

He continues his reasoning by stating that he considers the balance of work to be positive to date: "We needed to work on the line of succession within the category. I think today it is more organized, as time passes this will evolve. Completing almost a year now, I think it's positive, it's difficult for us to talk about ourselves, but we talk as a whole like the club, management, Damiani, everyone involved. I think it's positive because we manage to put Corinthians back in the fight, in a classification, after two troubled years like the last one, we manage to enhance some players, such as Luizinho, (Guilherme) Pellegrin to return to play on the wing. (Nicolas) Araújo entering the game, Caraguá entering the game, then there's the hat, Luiz Eduardo, entering the game."

He concludes: "Without the immediate need of the players, the 17 has to take the lead all the time in the 20, as was happening and trampling on the boys' formative processes. I think we can balance things out a little more between boys, sporting results. Trying to make the team play better and better, which is also not easy, because of everything we have to build the team, defend well, attack well, attack in an organized way, give confidence to the players, this is important. It was a group with a little damaged self-esteem, so based on what they went through, today it is less hurt than it was. So, there are many scars that needed to be healed, which I think we managed to heal. But we have been looking more at the medium and long term, so that this doesn't stop here and continues to evolve, we can achieve a sporting return, which is victory and training, which is delivering the player at the best possible level for our professional team."

The post William Batista analyzes three points in the Brasileirão U20, takes stock of the work at Corinthians and projects the final sequence of the tournament first appeared on Central do Timão.

The content William Batista analyzes three points in the Brasileirão U20, takes stock of the work at Corinthians and projects the final sequence of the tournament appears first in Central do Timão.

Source: Timao Central