Rio's state championship semifinal will serve on Saturday as stage to another edition of the Brazilian football's most ancient classic match: Fluminense and Botafogo.

The clubs faced each other in the field for the first time on Oct. 22, 1905, when Fluminense beat Botafogo 6-0.

Since then, they have had 314 confrontations, of which Fluminense won 117 and tied 95, being defeated by Botafogo 102 times. Their latest confrontation was the inauguration match of the Joao Havelange Olympic Stadium on June 30 last year, when Botafogo played for the first time, winning over Fluminense by 2-1 in the arena it would start to run following the Pan American Games Rio 2007.

Fluminense vs. Botafogo is possibly the most traditional game in Rio's state championship, and stirred a controversy that lasted 89 years. The two teams disagreed on the result of the 1907 championship, whose title was disputed by them up to 1996, when they decided to share it.

On Saturday, Fluminense, which ranked second in the preliminary round of the championship's Group A, and Botafogo, the leader of Group B, will meet at the first round of the competition's semifinals at the historical Maracana Stadium.

Fluminense's head coach Renato Gaucho is using secrecy as a strategy, and did not allow the team's main stars to talk to the press. He did not reveal whether he will keep three players (strikers Dodo, Washington and Leandro Amaral) in the offensive sector for the semifinal, or if he will draft midfielder Arouca instead.

"I cannot provide the weapon to the enemy," Gaucho told the local press on Friday.

Botafogo's President Bebeto de Freitas, on the other hand, is speaking up. He publicly expressed concern over the referees who will rule the game, as he claims his team has been "systematically" harmed by them. De Freitas was actually referring to the alleged mistakes committed by an assistant referee, who annulled two goals scored by Botafogo in a semifinal match of the 2007 Brazil Cup.

According to the local press, 38,000 tickets have already been sold, a nice figure for the current public-limited stadiums, but not exactly impressive if compared to the 142,339 fans that crowded Maracana in the final game of the state championship in 1971, when Fluminense beat Botafogo 1-0 and got the title.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2008)