Fluminense suffers defeat to Mirassol; Xavier, Jemmes, Zubeldía criticized

In the 17th round of Brazil's 2026 Série A, Fluminense suffered a defeat to Mirassol that deepened their already precarious position in the relegation battle — a loss that spoke less to a single bad night than to a team struggling to hold itself together under pressure. For a club of Fluminense's stature, the specter of relegation is not an abstraction but a gathering weight, and each dropped point brings that weight closer to the ground. The match raised the kind of questions that haunt clubs in crisis: not merely whether they can win, but whether they still know how.