Corinthians unbeaten v lower-league sides, eye elite improvement

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Central do Timão

·17 Februari 2026

Corinthians unbeaten v lower-league sides, eye elite improvement

By Henrique Pereira / Central do Timão Editorial Team

The 1-0 victory over São Bernardo FC last Sunday (15), at the Primeiro de Maio Stadium, secured Corinthians not only a spot in the quarterfinals of the Paulista Championship but also extended an impressive streak against opponents not in the Série A of the Brazilian Championship.

With this result, Timão reached 14 unbeaten games against clubs from lower divisions on the national scene. In the current edition of the State Championship, besides São Bernardo (Série B), the team defeated Ponte Preta (Série B), Velo Clube (Série D), and Capivariano, the latter without a national division in 2026 but already secured in the last division of 2027 after avoiding relegation in the Paulista. All these matches ended with a victory for the black and white team, according to data from the profile Estatísticas Corinthianas on the social network X.

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Photo: Rodrigo Coca/Ag. Corinthians

The positive streak also includes matches from the previous edition of the state tournament. On that occasion, Corinthians faced Grêmio Novorizontino, a member of Série B, as well as three teams from Série C (Guarani, São Bernardo, and Ponte Preta), two from Série D (Portuguesa and Água Santa), and two others without a national division that year (Noroeste and Velo Clube).

The last defeat to a club outside the elite occurred on February 25, 2024, when Ponte Preta, then in Série B, won 1-0 at the Neo Química Arena. After that match, Corinthians still defeated Santo André and drew with Água Santa, both participants in Série D that season.

While the performance against lower division teams has been consistent, the same does not apply to opponents from Série A in 2026. So far, there have been seven matches against six elite clubs: Bahia, Red Bull Bragantino (twice), Flamengo, Palmeiras, Santos, and São Paulo. The record is two wins, two draws, and three losses, which represents a 38.10% success rate.

In search of improving this rate, the team led by Dorival Júnior returns to the field this Thursday (19) at 7:30 PM (Brasília time) to face Athletico-PR at Arena da Baixada, in a postponed match from the second round of the Brazilian Championship.

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