São Paulo fight back to beat Primavera, enter Paulistão top eight | OneFootball

It was more a night of relief than anything else. With an annoying rain falling over Morumbi throughout the entire match, São Paulo needed two VAR interventions to ward off what would have been a huge humiliation and managed to come from behind to defeat Primavera 2-1 on Saturday night (7th), in the Paulista Championship.

The result puts Tricolor, for the first time in the penultimate round, into the qualifying zone for the knockout stage of the State Championship. They are currently in eighth place, with ten points. For the pessimists and jinxers, some good news: the club is no longer at risk of relegation.

Now, São Paulo, if the rest of the round goes their way, will only depend on themselves to advance to the quarterfinals. In the last round, next Saturday (14th), at 8:30 PM (Brasília time), they will face Ponte Preta, already mathematically relegated, away from home.

The first ever match between São Paulo and Primavera started as expected: absolute dominance by the home team, with Lucas regaining good form and performing well, setting the pace.

It seemed like it was only a matter of time before things were decided, but the scenario changed because of what has been Tricolor’s biggest problem this season: offensive inefficiency. Crespo’s team builds up play, keeps possession, but can’t finish their chances.

The outlook changed after an incident, when the match was interrupted at the 31st minute so the ambulance could assist defender Afonso, who fell unconscious after a head clash with Tapia during a challenge for the ball.

Combined with the technical stoppage, the interruption ended up cooling down the São Paulo side, who could no longer perform with the same intensity and finished the first half to boos from the more than 35,000 fans who braved the rain at Morumbi.

After the break, Crespo even tried to inject more offensive energy by bringing Luciano onto the field, but the move backfired. In the 8th minute, on a counterattack, Gabriel Poveda controlled the ball in midfield after an exchange of passes and took a shot. The ball deflected off Feraresi and left Rafael with no chance.

The “ghost,” nickname of the team from the countryside, really seemed to be haunting São Paulo’s home again, a repeat of disappointments that fans have already witnessed this year.

Crespo, almost out of desperation, started piling on attackers. And it actually worked. In the 25th minute, Calleri was played in down the left, got past his marker, and crossed powerfully. Lucas Ramon, making his debut, stretched, saved the ball with a sliding tackle, and found Lucas, who slotted it into the net to equalize. The goal, however, was only validated after VAR review, since the play was initially ruled offside.

Then it was Primavera’s turn to feel the pressure. In the 34th minute, their defender decided to give Tricolor a helping hand. Renato ended up elbowing Luciano inside the box. Once again, VAR intervened and the penalty was awarded and converted by Calleri, sealing the comeback.

Buoyed by an unbeaten run that now stands at four matches, São Paulo will try to maintain their good form now in the Brasileirão, when they face Grêmio on Wednesday (11th), at 9:30 PM (Brasília time), again at Morumbi.

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