Heroic São Paulo beat Fortaleza, end droughts before Palmeiras derby | OneFootball

Tranquility, certainly, is not a word that has been part of the São Paulo dictionary lately. And, playing with one less man for more than 70 minutes, the Tricolor had to sweat more than they should have. But they managed to write epic lines by beating Fortaleza 2-0 away from home, ending their drought of victories and goals scored.

The drought against the very Ceará opponent, which they had not been able to overcome for an uncomfortable five years, also ended.

This was despite a makeshift defense due to absences. Even with a novel attack with Tapia and Rigoni, who before the match did not instill a drop of confidence in the fans, and played due to Hernán Crespo's decision to rest Luciano and Ferreirinha.

On the night of this Thursday (2), once again the Tricolor fans were certain that the current phase does not allow the Morumbi club to breathe more relieved, to have a match in which they achieve a good result with some tranquility and authority and to have the feeling, above all, of confidence.

At the Castelão, for the Brazilian Championship, ten minutes were enough for the feeling of happiness to return. That's when Tapia, with some opportunism inside the box, converted Rigoni's low cross and opened the score, ending São Paulo's four-game streak without scoring goals.

But the feeling that things were under control lasted little, very little. Because nine minutes later, Rigoni, who surprisingly appeared as one of the best on the field, arrived late in a ball dispute and ended up hitting Deyverson with more intensity than he should have. The VAR called and the referee sent off the Argentine.

It was the end of the feeling of tranquility for the Tricolor fans, who saw their game plan implode with one less player, completely lost the ball exit that was already deficient and held on as they could, relying much more on the deficiency of the opponent, in bad shape and who could not articulate their attack in an organized way, than necessarily by merit of the makeshift defense.

In the second half, the patched-up Tricolor continued to bet much more on the reactive game, closing their fullbacks in a defensive line of five and holding on in the face of the inefficiency of the hosts, who despite the changes continued without creating concrete chances of equalizing and made life easier for the Paulistas in the Northeast.

Disorganized, Fortaleza began to rise in a disordered manner, leaving spaces for São Paulo, who continued to insist on direct transition as a solution to regain possession of the ball. And that's how the bill was settled: at 39, Enzo Díaz, who was acting as a left midfielder, received a pass inside the box without marking and just rolled it to Luciano, with the goalkeeper beaten, to push it into the net and score the second.

Another drought ended: in this case the one of the number 10, who had not scored since July 24 and had to deal with criticism from the fans for the goals missed in the elimination in the Copa Libertadores.

With a night of overcoming and memories that will last for a long time, São Paulo reaches 38 points and reduces its difference to the Libertadores qualification zone to two points, even though it has one less game than the sixth-placed Bahia.

Revitalized with the somewhat heroic result, the Tricolor renews its breath for another important decision: the classic against rival Palmeiras, their next commitment in the Brasileirão, at 4pm (Brasília time) this Sunday (5), at Morumbi.

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