Cruzeiro held by Ceará, stay 3rd and out of title race | OneFootball

Cruzeiro missed the opportunity to take the second place from Palmeiras and ended up with just a 1-1 draw against Ceará this Saturday at Castelão. After a lukewarm first half, both goals came in the second half: Zanocelo opened the scoring for the home team, and the team from Minas Gerais equalized after a deflection by Willian Machado, who ended up scoring an own goal.

With this result, Raposa reached 69 points and definitively said goodbye to the dream of fighting for the title. Even if they win the remaining two matches — against Botafogo and Santos — the team can no longer surpass Flamengo in the number of victories, which is the tiebreaker criterion.

GAME SUMMARY

Even playing away, Cruzeiro started the match controlling the actions. The team from Minas Gerais kept more possession, created the most dangerous chances, and tried to impose their rhythm from the first minutes. Ceará, pressured by the fight against relegation, opted for a more reactive game, waiting for a slip from Raposa to attack quickly — something that worked little throughout the initial stage.

The celestial team even managed to score twice with Christian, but both plays were correctly annulled by assistant Bruno Boschilia, who pointed out offside in both situations.

In the second half, the scenario remained similar: Cruzeiro building from the defense and Ceará betting on the opponent's mistakes. And that's how the home team found their goal. At 10 minutes, after Gabigol lost the ball in attack, the Ceará team set up a quick counterattack, and Zanocelo hit the corner of Cássio with a shot from the edge of the area.

Raposa only reacted at 25 minutes, during a phase of instability in the game. Kaiki received a pass from Villalba on the left, shot across, and counted on a deflection by Willian Machado, who ended up scoring an own goal and leveling the score.

Until the final whistle, both teams still had attempts to break the tie, but the 1-1 score did not change — a result that sealed the end of Cruzeiro's mathematical chances of winning the Brasileirão title.

Cruzeiro's Schedule

Now, Cruzeiro tries to turn the page in front of their fans. The next match will be this Thursday at 7:30 PM at Mineirão against Botafogo.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.