Jair Ventura recalls Corinthians spell, key 2018 Copa do Brasil moment | OneFootball

Jair Ventura’s spell at Corinthians lasted just over three months, but its main chapter was reaching the 2018 Copa do Brasil final. Now in charge of Vitória, the coach recalled his time at Parque São Jorge and once again spoke about the decision against Cruzeiro, especially Pedrinho’s disallowed goal in the second leg.

Jair took over Corinthians in September of that year, after Osmar Loss left the head coach position. Shortly after arriving at the club, he led the team in the final stretch of the Copa do Brasil and was in charge of Timão in the semifinal qualification over Flamengo.

Photo: Marcos Ribolli

In an interview with Estadão, the coach described his experience at Corinthians positively, despite how the season ended. Remembering the final of the national competition, Jair pointed to the disallowed Pedrinho goal as a decisive moment in that matchup and also linked the runner-up finish to his later departure from the club.

“In the end, at Corinthians, it was also a wonderful experience, having eliminated Flamengo in a semifinal, a massive game, and reaching the Copa do Brasil final, where everything happened with that wrongly disallowed Pedrinho goal. The first year of VAR came to improve things and ended up harming us. And we know what life is like for some people with a silver medal. There were other coaches who won the silver medal and were praised. In my case, I had a contract and ended up leaving. The silver medal wasn’t valued and we ended up being fired.”

In that edition of the Copa do Brasil, Corinthians got past Vitória, Chapecoense and Flamengo before facing Cruzeiro in the final. Jair Ventura took charge of the black-and-white side during the competition and managed the team in both semifinal matches against the Rio club and in both final matches.

In the first match of the final, played in Belo Horizonte, Corinthians lost 1-0. As a result, they needed to overturn the deficit in the second leg, played in front of 46,571 fans at Neo Química Arena, then called Arena Corinthians. The situation became even more complicated in the 28th minute of the first half. After a mistake by Léo Santos while trying to keep the ball from going out, Cruzeiro regained possession and started the move that ended with Robinho opening the scoring.

Timão managed to respond in the second half. In the 10th minute, Jadson converted a penalty and made it 1-1. Shortly afterward, Pedrinho came off the bench and, in the 24th minute, hit a beautiful shot from outside the box to turn the score around. The celebration, however, was interrupted by the refereeing. After a recommendation from VAR, referee Wagner do Nascimento Magalhães reviewed an earlier incident involving Jadson and Dedé and called a foul by the Corinthians player, disallowing Pedrinho’s goal.

Needing to chase the result again, Corinthians pushed forward in the final minutes. Cruzeiro took advantage of the spaces left by the black-and-white team and scored through Arrascaeta on a counterattack, sealing the match at 2-1 and winning the Copa do Brasil title.

Jair Ventura remained at Corinthians until the end of the 2018 Brazilian Championship. Timão finished the competition in 13th place and secured a spot in the following year’s Copa Sudamericana. Despite having a contract until the end of 2019, the coach left the club in December.

Overall, Jair managed Corinthians in 19 matches, with four wins, six draws and nine losses, as well as 12 goals scored and 19 conceded. His win rate during his spell was approximately 32%. The coach is currently in charge of Vitória.

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