Carlos Vinícius stars as São Paulo lose to Grêmio, deepening season crisis | OneFootball

São Paulo was defeated by Grêmio this Thursday, 2–0, in Porto Alegre, in the 28th round of the Brazilian Championship, thanks to two goals from Carlos Vinícius, one of them from a penalty awarded after VAR review.

With the result, the São Paulo Tricolor suffered its sixth loss in the last seven matches, deepening the crisis in this final stretch of the season and weakening its bid for a spot in the next edition of the Copa Libertadores.

Grêmio, in turn, moved to 36 points, pulling away from the relegation zone and closing in on the top half of the table, now in 11th place.

São Paulo returns to the field next Sunday, visiting Mirassol at 6:30 p.m. (Brasília time) at the Maião, for the 29th round of the Brazilian Championship. Grêmio, meanwhile, will face Bahia at the Arena Fonte Nova on the same day at 8:30 p.m. (Brasília time).

Match summary

GRÊMIO 2–0 SÃO PAULO

Competition: friendly  Venue: Arena do Grêmio, in Porto Alegre (RS)  Date: October 16, 2025 (Tuesday)  Time: 7:00 p.m. (Brasília time)

Yellow cards: Tapia, Mailton, Luciano (São Paulo); Dodi (Grêmio)  Red cards: none

Refereeing

Referee: Davi de Oliveira Lacerda (ES) Assistants: Nailton Junior de Sousa Oliveira (CE) and Douglas Pagung (ES) VAR: Rodrigo Nunes de Sá (RJ)

Goals

Grêmio Carlos Vinícius, 38' of 1st half and 11' of 2nd half

🔵⚪⚫GRÊMIO

Gabriel Grando; Marcos Rocha, Noriega, Wagner Leonardo and Lucas Esteves; Arthur (Cuéllar), Dodi and Edenilson (Gustavo Martins); Alysson (Pavón), Amuzu (Cristaldo) and Carlos Vinícius (Cristian Oliveira).

Head coach: Mano Menezes.

🔴⚪⚫SÃO PAULO

Rafael; Arboleda, Alan Franco (Lucas) and Sabino; Mailton, Marcos Antônio, Alisson, Rodriguinho (Ferreira) and Wendell (Patryck); Luciano (Rigoni) and Tapia (Luiz Gustavo).

Head coach: Hernán Crespo.

The match

São Paulo starts better

São Paulo started better, but at 11 minutes left-back Wendell had to come off with foot pain. The first chance came at 13, with Tapia. The Chilean forward won the ball high up the pitch after a Grêmio throw-in, drove into the box and shot for the top corner, but sent it wide.

Shortly after, Tapia received a through ball from Marcos Antônio and crossed with the outside of his foot, low, to Luciano, but São Paulo’s number 10 didn’t get there in time to finish at the far post.

Tapia remained the main attacking threat for the São Paulo Tricolor. At 27 minutes, Mailton crossed, the Chilean forward controlled inside the box and shot just over, grazing the crossbar.

Grêmio opens the scoring

In the closing stages of the half, Grêmio woke up. On the first chance, at 35, Pavón shot from the edge of the box into the corner, forcing a great save from goalkeeper Rafael.

Three minutes later, though, there was no stopping it. Amuzu cut inside from the left carrying the ball and shot from distance, but was blocked by Alan Franco. The ball, however, fell to Carlos Vinícius, who simply tucked it into the back of the net, opening the scoring for Grêmio.

Grêmio extends the lead in the second half

São Paulo came out for the second half more attacking, with Lucas replacing Alan Franco. But it didn’t help. At six minutes, Edenilson was brought down by Sabino inside the box and, after VAR review, a penalty was awarded to Grêmio. Carlos Vinícius stepped up and made no mistake, extending the lead for the hosts.

And Grêmio only didn’t score a third because Rafael pulled off a miracle at 35 minutes, stopping Cristian Oliveira one-on-one after a perfectly weighted low cross from Pavón.

Before the final whistle, already in stoppage time, Ferreira hit the post with a header from a Marcos Antônio cross. Thus, São Paulo had to settle for yet another setback this season.

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