Expressinho hold O’Higgins in Chile, stay unbeaten, top, yet to concede | OneFootball

Once again, coach Roger Machado decided to field an alternative lineup in the Copa Sudamericana. And you know what that means…

Just like in the last round, against Millonarios in Colombia, São Paulo had a night of little attacking productivity and creativity. But they made up for it with a well-organized defensive system. And they left Chile with a goalless draw against O’Higgins on Thursday night (7), in the fourth round of the continental competition.

Be that as it may, the draw ends up being beneficial for São Paulo, who remain alone at the top of Group C, now with eight points, one ahead of the Chileans, with their two remaining matches still to be played at Morumbi, holding all the cards to secure direct qualification for the round of 16.

Roger started with two welcome new faces in the starting 11: right-back Igor Felisberto and center-back Osório finally made their professional debuts for Tricolor. And amid the usual mistakes from debutants, the picture showed much greater deficiencies in the attacking unit, which was made up of experienced players.

Throughout the first half, the trio of Cauly, Tapia, and André Silva failed to click. At times forming a front three, at others dropping deeper to play from midfield, the result was a lot of difficulty finding the right rhythm and taking advantage of the spaces left by the home side during their constant attacks.

The lowest point, however, was Ferreirinha. The winger got the best opportunities to open the scoring in the opening 45 minutes and wasted three good chances, appearing in all of them as the surprise element inside the box.

Speaking of O’Higgins, the Chileans partly repeated the performance they had shown at Morumbi. Well coached, they kept more possession but could not find their shooting boots when it came time to finish. That only changed early in the second half, when, taking advantage of a momentary blackout from Tricolor, they hit Coronel’s post twice.

The scare at least served to wake São Paulo up for a moment, with their goalkeeper saving Tricolor’s best chance, a Tapia shot after a cross from the right by André Silva. But that was it.

By Roger’s choice, the main cavalry stayed on the bench, while other reserves, such as Lucca and Negrucci, came on, and São Paulo’s tempo dropped considerably.

There were even good chances for the Chileans to open the scoring, some of them quite dangerous, but as a rule their lack of accuracy, combined with luck and solid defensive work from the back line and goalkeeper Coronel, managed to avoid the worst. Let’s be honest, it’s not exactly easy to break down the best defense in the tournament, still unbeaten…

São Paulo now return to Sudamericana action on the 19th (Tuesday), when they will face Millonarios in the fifth round at Morumbi. Depending on what happens, they could secure qualification in advance. Before that, however, attention of course turns to this Sunday (10), at 6:30 p.m. (Brasília time), when the challenge is the derby against rivals Corinthians in Itaquera, for the Brazilian Championship.

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