São Paulo end drought, seal direct Sul-Americana last-16 spot | OneFootball

After two frustrating draws in a row, both conceded late in the matches, São Paulo needed to react and give some kind of response to the fans. And this Tuesday (26), the opportunity was perfect: the weak and limited Boston River. This time, Dorival Júnior’s team did not disappoint. Even playing in a half-empty Morumbi, a reflection of the discontent in the stands, Tricolor beat the already-eliminated Uruguayans 2-0 and sealed direct qualification for the Copa Sudamericana round of 16.

With six players out injured, Dorival surprised with the lineup and kept the much-criticized 4-2-4 shape, putting André Silva in Luciano’s place, playing as a second striker drifting around the box. Against Boston River, that extremely attacking option, without such a packed midfield, was enough.

The end of an eight-match winless streak began to be written early on. Just 4 minutes in, Wendell found André Silva on the left. He played in a low cross for Artur to control, create space, and fire across goal for a superb finish.

The early lead could have brought optimism to São Paulo fans, but the truth is that it was the same scenario seen in recent matches. Tricolor have been finding the net early, but then get caught in the opponent’s web and start losing the ability not only to keep the ball in attack and hold the other side back, but, more importantly, they waste chances to extend the lead and kill the game off for good, allowing the opponent to recover from the early blow.

But this time we are talking about Boston River. For all the problems in Dorival’s team, the fact is that the Uruguayans simply do not have the quality to trouble São Paulo, and they allowed our collective play to unfold, following the recent script of keeping possession without objectivity or effectiveness.

Even so, in the 17th minute, the modest opponent of the night, who had already helped Tricolor in the previous round of the competition by pulling off an unlikely win over O’Higgins and leaving us top of Group C, lent another helping hand. After Artur sent a low cross from the right toward Calleri, Acosta panicked and ended up scoring an own goal while trying to clear the ball.

The play still carries a bittersweet feeling, because it was the 11,000th goal in São Paulo’s glorious history (and it was an own goal). Congratulations to the Uruguayan center back, who is now forever recorded in the history of Brazil’s only three-time world champion.

The rest of the first half followed the usual pattern of a São Paulo side wasting the chances it created. Calleri headed a good cross wide. André Silva then saw the goalkeeper save a good strike from the edge of the box.

The ghost of poor finishing leading to disappointment returned to haunt Morumbi at the start of the second half, with the Uruguayan side sensing a complacent São Paulo and pressing to create good attacking opportunities, most of them wasted because of their obvious lack of quality.

This time, however, before another upset could start brewing, Dorival made changes, adding more pace with the introduction of Cotia youngsters Pedro Ferreira and Lucca, and reestablished control of the game. But once again, possession and pressure were not turned into goals. And there was almost a huge chance for that. In the 31st minute, the referee awarded a penalty after Calleri was pulled inside the box on a cross, but VAR stepped in and overturned the decision after spotting the Argentine offside, as he continues his own personal goal drought.

São Paulo end the Sudamericana group stage unbeaten, with 12 points. Their knockout-stage opponent will start to become known on Friday (29), with the draw at Conmebol, but the matchup will only be decided after the playoff between the second-placed teams from the groups and the clubs coming from the Libertadores.

Even so, there is still time before that tie. It will only take place on August 12 and 19, after the World Cup.

Tricolor return to the field at 8:30 p.m. (Brasília time) on Sunday (31), when they face Remo away from home in the Brazilian Championship. It will be the team’s last match before the nearly two-month break in the calendar for the World Cup in the USA, Mexico, and Canada.

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