São Paulo dig deep to beat Fortaleza, but not the real test | OneFootball

São Paulo secured an important victory this Thursday, away from home, against Fortaleza, by 2 to 0, for the Brazilian Championship. The result, which was already extremely important, was even more so due to the fact that the tricolor team played with one less man on the field since the 20th minute of the first half.

Rigoni received an early red card after a hard entry on Deyverson, which was reviewed by VAR. The match was already 1-0 for São Paulo, which, from then on, had to run twice as much to sustain the advantage built at the beginning of the game.

Pressured by a sequence of four defeats, São Paulo had no other option but to close up and try to exploit one or another counterattack. Luckily, Fortaleza, owner of the second worst campaign of the Brasileirão, was not able to find spaces in the tricolor defense in the first half.

In the complementary stage, with a much more offensive formation, Fortaleza went all out against São Paulo, but the team led by Hernán Crespo maintained the posture of the first half, not exposing itself and often giving up the ball to avoid any kind of danger near its area.

The fact is that the team's desire to start a turnaround after going through one of the worst moments of the year, if not the worst, spoke louder. São Paulo was brave at Arena Castelão and showed on the field the grit that many fans had been asking for amidst the sequence of defeats.

It's true that Fortaleza is not a benchmark. As challenging as it is to play with one less player for more than half the game, São Paulo was tested by an opponent who is the second-to-last in the Brazilian Championship and has only won five games out of 25 opportunities.

Either way, the Tricolor did its duty. It returned to winning, adding three precious points to the table and strengthening itself in the fight for a spot in the G6, a group that guarantees a place in the next edition of the Copa Libertadores, the club's main goal at this end of the season.

Next Sunday, São Paulo has a much bigger challenge ahead. The opponent will be Palmeiras, the vice-leader of the Brasileirão and semifinalist of the Libertadores, at 4pm (Brasília time), at Morumbi, and Hernán Crespo's charges will have to show an even stronger personality on the field if they want to come out victorious in the Choque-Rei.

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