São Paulo’s derby tasks: top spot, hoodoos, stopping Palmeiras | OneFootball

You can be a Palmeiras or São Paulo fan, but it's a fact that both sides have become accustomed to experiencing decisive matches between the clubs in recent years, surrounded by controversies that have definitely placed the Choque-Rei on the podium of the main classics of Brazilian football.

This Saturday (21), when the rivals take the field at 9 PM (Brasília time) at Morumbi, once again the São Paulo side will fight for important things against the green team, in an environment already heavily charged with the refereeing controversy created during the week.

To begin with, the very leadership of the Brazilian Championship. Both teams are strictly tied at the top of the competition with 16 points. By tiebreaker criteria, Tricolor needs to win to isolate itself in first place.

The problem is winning... Breaking taboos is one of Tricolor's missions at Morumbi.

São Paulo is experiencing an uncomfortable drought against its arch-enemy. The last victory of the São Paulo team in the Choque-Rei as the host was in the quarter-finals of the 2023 Copa do Brasil.

Considering only the Brasileirão, the period is even longer: it was a 2-0 triumph in the third round of the 2017 edition, with goals scored by Lucas Pratto and Luiz Araújo. It's been almost nine years of drought.

Through the Paulista Championship, the last positive result at home was in the first leg of the 2022 final, with a 3-1 victory with two goals by Calleri and one by Pablo Maia.

The moment is also unfavorable, with one of its most negative sequences in the 96-year history of the confrontation: Palmeiras hasn't lost in 11 games, having established its longest unbeaten streak in the duel, although still inferior to São Paulo's record, which reached 15 matches between 1971 and 1974.

The impact of this period goes beyond isolated statistics. When the current streak began, São Paulo still had the advantage in the overall record, with 116 wins against 115. Since then, the scenario has significantly reversed, and Palmeiras has opened six wins ahead, now with 122 to 116.

It's a change that synthesizes the recent moment of the classic, especially considering the snapshot of the last decade. Since the renovation of Parque Antártica, completed at the end of 2014, the clubs have faced each other 49 times. In this interval, Tricolor won ten, drew 15, and lost 24, a significant difference compared to the previous panorama when the club maintained an eight-win advantage in the overall history (106 to 98).

The recent dominance is also reflected in the current winning streak: Palmeiras comes into the game seeking its sixth consecutive victory in the confrontation, something it has already achieved on two other occasions (between 1937 and 1938 and between 1995 and 1997), while São Paulo has as a reference its own series of six consecutive wins, recorded between 1962 and 1963.

The context of home advantage also helps explain the moment. Morumbi, a traditional stage for the classic, has ceased to be a constant presence in the recent calendar. In a sequence of eight confrontations, this will be only the second with São Paulo as the host, after an unprecedented period in which the opponent acted as the host six times in seven matches, due to two single-elimination duels in the Paulista Championship, which the opponent played at home for having had a better previous campaign.

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