São Paulo in Libertadores qualifiers: Rewarding a club stuck in the past | OneFootball

São Paulo ended the season in a melancholic fashion after being defeated by Vitória this Sunday, 1-0 at Barradão, in the last round of the Brazilian Championship.

The Tricolor needed a draw to finish the tournament in eighth place and keep their chances of qualifying for the Pre-Libertadores. Despite the negative result, São Paulo secured the position they aimed for in the standings, but much more due to the shortcomings of others than their own merit.

If Red Bull Bragantino had beaten Internacional, São Paulo would have dropped to ninth place and thus would have had no chance of appearing in the next edition of the Copa Libertadores. Given the football they displayed throughout most of the season, the tricolor team deserved to be left out of the continent’s main tournament.

São Paulo in the Libertadores, even if only in the preliminary phase, may reward the incompetence of an outdated club that has made strategic mistakes over the past few years and seems unwilling to take the bitter, yet necessary, medicine to return to fighting at the top tier of national football.

The high number of injuries, poor signings, delayed salaries, among other problems faced in 2025, only lay bare the enormous hole São Paulo currently finds itself in. A club that was once a benchmark in management, but now is on life support.

To secure a spot in the Pre-Libertadores, São Paulo will have to root for Cruzeiro or Fluminense to win the Copa do Brasil. However, if the spot is confirmed, the Tricolor runs a serious risk of embarrassment right at the start of next season, since with the football they have been playing, Hernán Crespo’s men will hardly reach the group stage.

Crespo is not to blame for the state of the club and the team. With a long list of absences, there were few options left for the coach to set up his lineup. Struggling against smaller teams, with considerably lower budgets, has become São Paulo’s new reality.

This Sunday, against Vitória, the script was one that fans already know. The home team, desperate to remain in Série A, controlled the game from start to finish. Rare were the moments when São Paulo’s team showed any grit on the pitch, which earned scoldings from Hernán Crespo on the sidelines.

The Argentine coach has already shown himself to be well-intentioned and willing to collaborate with São Paulo’s rebuilding process, for which he has developed a special affection. Crespo’s attitude, however, is not enough, since the main political players at Morumbi do not seem willing to give up their privileges for the sake of the club.

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