Coach: Chelsea-bound Estêvão OK to feel anxious

Palmeiras manager Abel Ferreria defended Estêvão connected Friday aft the young prima admitted feeling tense up of his determination to Chelsea.

Speaking to reporters earlier this week, winger Estêvão, 18, said helium had felt "anxiety" and "butterflies successful my stomach" arsenic helium waits to implicit his switch to Stamford Bridge adjacent month, successful a woody agreed past June.

The winger played 63 minutes successful Philadelphia connected Saturday, arsenic Palmeiras bushed Botafogo 1-0 aft other clip to suffice for the quarterfinals.

"It's truly difficult. It's similar a imagination that I'm going to marque travel true," Estêvão said.

"I person to absorption here, I person to work, but it's not easy. The person it gets, the much anxiousness sets in. But I'm trying to absorption here, to permission [Palmeiras] successful the close way."

Estêvão's admittance led to immoderate disapproval from Palmeiras fans and section media, claiming it showed helium was distracted from the club's run successful the tournament.

"You cognize the quality betwixt a quality and an animal? What distinguishes 1 from the other? It's feelings, and emotions," Ferreira told a quality league connected Friday. "It's mean to beryllium tense successful these benignant of games, to consciousness much anxious.

"It's mean for a lad who had a imagination that's becoming a reality. It's mean that [Estêvão] feels that. He's an 18-year-old kid, helium was naive to accidental what helium said. And a batch of you [the press] slaughtered him, which is what you bash to players."

Estêvão started each 3 of Palmeiras' Club World Cup radical games against Porto, Al Ahly and Inter Miami, providing 3 assists.

He is rated arsenic 1 of the champion young talents successful South America, and made his elder debut for Brazil past September.