MIAMI (United States) – During last season of Basketball Champions League Americas, the party was set for Flamengo to be crowned in front of their home crowd, but Minas eliminated them in the quarterfinals (85-83). Now, both teams go head-to-head again, and Flamengo will seek revenge in the Final 4, to be played in Franca (Brazil) on April 14-15.

Flamengo, who lifted the BCL Americas trophy during the 2020-21 season, is focused on getting payback against the Belo Horizonte outfit as they try to punch their ticket to the final and become the first team to win the competition in multiple occasions.

The Rio de Janeiro team seems to have everything they need to reach their objective. They only lost a single game (5-1) to finish atop Group C and then swept UdeC (2-0) in the quarterfinals. Gustavo Conti's squad has the tournament's best defense, allowing just 68.0 points per game to their opponents, and they also score the most three-pointers per game (14.6).

"It went very well, tactically we knew how to prepare the matchup. In each game we defended with a different style. That gave us good results," said Conti about his team's defensive performance.

Their consistency was another area highlighted by the team's coach: "We were consistent against everybody. We had a bad start in Montevideo against Instituto but then we won at home and on the road. I think our consistency was very important."

Flamengo opened the tournament with a loss to Instituto but then won the rest of their games until now for a 7-1 record.

"We showed that we're a great team as the tournament went on despite having some highs and lows. We understand the potential of this roster. We achieved part of the objective and we're now preparing to reach the Final 4 in our best shape," said Argentinian small forward Martín Cuello, who leads Flamengo in BCLA in efficiency (18.1), points (12.7) and assists (5.0).

But against Minas, the red and black will have to tread carefully despite beating them on both occasions during the current season of Brazil's NBB. Coach Conti trusts his players but understands their opponent's firepower.

"Minas has a great team. They're an adversary that we obviously know very well from our domestic Brazilian league. It's always great games against them, generally going down to the wire. I think they have very versatile players that can defend anyone, be it guards or big men. They can run the break, shoot a lot of threes and be aggressive. Their foreign players are key. It will be a very worthy BCLA semifinal," said Conti.

Meanwhile, Cuello expects a close game but trusts his team's chances.

"It's going to be a very tough game. We already played them in NBB and both games were intense and close (85-73 and 79-78 wins). Surely this will be similar. We'll bring our best strategy, but we have to focus on getting to that game in our best version and I have a lot of faith on our team."

FIBA