68 years ago: Zizinho’s São Paulo thrashed Pelé’s Santos away | OneFootball

Exactly 68 years ago, on November 17, 1957, São Paulo delivered one of its greatest performances on the way to winning the Paulista title that year, achieving an epic 6-2 victory over Santos, which already had a young Pelé, right at Vila Belmiro, with a spectacular show by the maestro Zizinho.

King Pelé never hid that his great idol in football was Zizinho, a classic midfielder and national reference who had just joined São Paulo. The future best in history was still in his first full season with Santos but was already emerging as a star (he finished this first Paulistão as the top scorer, with 17 goals). But on that day, it was the tricolor number 10 who stole the show.

The Peixe was the reigning state champion and was on a streak of five games without a loss. São Paulo was also doing well in the title race, with three consecutive victories. The classic in the lowlands would prove to be crucial in the tricolor's conquest of 1957.

According to reports from newspapers of the time, Mestre Ziza delivered a stellar performance in the rout, scoring a penalty goal and leading the tricolor recital, which included more goals from Canhoteiro and Amaury, two each, and Maurinho completing the thrashing.

Also according to the press, Zizinho's performance, who was also a national idol, was so brilliant that Santos fans carried him on their shoulders after the match, despite the heavy defeat at Vila Belmiro. Those were different times in football…

After this game, São Paulo went on a streak of nine games without losing until the 57 state title, with seven wins and two draws. The Paulista victory came on December 29 of that year, after a 3-1 triumph over Corinthians at Pacaembu.

See the technical details and how São Paulo and Santos played that day:

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