São Paulo cruise past Internacional, keep Libertadores dream alive | OneFootball

As long as there is bamboo, there are arrows.

Okay, we know, we've used this phrase before in a São Paulo game report. The fact is, there's nothing more fitting to describe the current situation of Tricolor in the Brazilian Championship.

In crisis, coming off a 6-0 defeat and with fans more inclined to protest than support at Vila Belmiro, the scenario promised to be dramatic for the Morumbi club on the night of this Wednesday (3). Fortunately, the opponent was Internacional. The team from Rio Grande do Sul is in a much, much worse situation than the team from São Paulo. They were easy prey for Hernán Crespo's reinforced team, which won convincingly 3-0 in their farewell as hosts in this penultimate round of the Brasileirão.

Indeed, there couldn't have been a better opponent for São Paulo to give the proper response to the fans. And the heroic Tricolor fans who traveled down the mountain were rewarded for the rain they endured with a very solid performance from their team.

With the return of Ferreirinha on the left wing and Luciano in attack, Tricolor excelled. They dominated the actions, exchanged passes easily against a fragile Internacional team, and managed to get the game transition and offensive construction right.

Where they failed, and a lot, was in finishing. Almost all the perfectly set-up balls by Ferreirinha, Marcos Antônio, and Bobadilla ended up being wasted by Luciano and Tapia.

The volume of play upfront hid the old São Paulo problems in their defensive axis. Crespo's 3-2-5 with the ball leaves the team exposed when they lose it. There are flaws in the repositioning that allow the opponent to appear with some ease in the midfield, especially playing behind the two wings. Fortunately for us, on the other side was not Fluminense, but Internacional, a poor team with almost no efficient collective play and inefficient construction.

Luckily, on this night, unlike other Tricolor carnivals, the attack compensated for the scares from their defense. São Paulo opened the scoring at 20 minutes, in an aerial play. Ferreirinha took a free-kick from the right and Sabino, completely unmarked, rose to head and score.

When the team from Rio Grande do Sul threatened to complicate things against the narrow São Paulo lead, the team decided to give something they haven't had for a long time: tranquility. At 47, in the dying moments of the first half, Maik extended the lead by hitting a shot from the edge of the area after a triangulation with Ferreirinha and Bobadilla.

With the lead extended in their favor and the opponent sinking, the return from the break sealed the deal. Just 2 minutes in, Marcos Antônio (again!) delivered a beautiful through pass. And this time Luciano didn't waste it. He took advantage of Rochet falling to the ground too early and chipped the ball over to score the third of the night.

The victory becomes extremely important for Tricolor to keep their Libertadores dream alive. The team remains isolated in eighth place in the standings, now with 51 points, three ahead of Bragantino. The position is crucial, as if Cruzeiro or Fluminense win the Copa do Brasil, it will be the eighth place that earns a spot in the preliminary phase of the main South American club competition.

Now, back to peace and excited by the good game played, São Paulo heads to their farewell of the frustrating season. They face Vitória at 4 p.m. (Brasília time) on Sunday (7), in Salvador (BA), needing to win to perhaps save a year that has so far been completely lost.

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