Palmeiras post worst Brasileirão half under Abel Ferreira; see | OneFootball

Palmeiras is going through its worst Brazilian Championship half under Abel Ferreira. After nine rounds of the second half of the 2026 season, Verdão has 13 points from 27 available, with three wins, four draws, and two defeats — a 48.1% success rate.

The number stands out mainly when compared to the other halves played by the club since the arrival of the Portuguese coach in 2020. Until then, the worst full campaign had been the second half of 2021, when Palmeiras finished with 28 points and a 49.1% success rate.

In other words: in just nine matches, the 2026 Palmeiras side is already posting a lower success rate than the worst full half of the Abel era.

Drop after a historic first half

Palmeiras finished the first 19 rounds of the Brasileirão with 44 points, from 13 wins, five draws, and only one defeat. It was the club’s best first-half campaign in the history of the round-robin Brazilian Championship.

The team had opened up an important lead at the top of the table and entered the second half of the competition in a very favorable position. After the league turned, however, its performances dropped.

In the nine matches of the return leg, Palmeiras beat Vitória, Vasco, and São Paulo, drew with Mirassol, Internacional, Atlético Mineiro, Grêmio, and Botafogo, and lost to Fluminense.

The contrast with 2021

The 2021 season was also marked by a drop in form in the second half. In that campaign, Palmeiras managed only four points in the first six rounds of the return leg, for a 22.2% success rate.

Despite the poor start, the team managed to recover and finished the second half with 28 points. That performance was, until now, Abel Ferreira’s worst mark in a full Brasileirão half.

In 2026, however, Palmeiras still needs 15 points in the next ten rounds to match the 28 points earned in the 2021 return leg.

Solid defense, but points slipping away

The drop does not necessarily mean a defensive decline. Quite the opposite: in the nine games of the second half, Palmeiras conceded only seven goals and scored 14, ending that stretch with a positive goal difference of seven.

The problem lies mainly in the number of draws. There have been four in nine matches, which represents almost half of the games played in the return leg.

The 0-0 draw with Grêmio, in the 28th round, was Palmeiras’s fourth draw since the Brasileirão resumed after the World Cup. In the post-World Cup period, the team has won four of its ten matches, drawn four, and lost two.

Before the break, the picture was very different: 12 wins, five draws, and only one defeat, with a 75.9% success rate. After the World Cup, that figure dropped to 53.3%.

Leading turned into chasing

Palmeiras once held a seven-point lead over Flamengo at the top of the league. After this run of results in the second half, it lost first place and ended the 28th round with 57 points, three behind its Rio rival.

There are still ten rounds left until the end of the Brasileirão, and Verdão still has matches ahead against Bahia, Corinthians, Athletico-PR, Bragantino, Santos, Remo, Cruzeiro, Flamengo, Chapecoense, and Coritiba.

At the same time, Palmeiras remains alive in the semifinals of the Libertadores and the Copa do Brasil, increasing the number of commitments in the final stretch of the season.

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