Ferreirinha takes chance, hits hat-trick as São Paulo batter Cruzeiro | OneFootball

Roger Machado was emphatic after São Paulo’s draw with Internacional in midweek: he liked seeing the team play with two wide wingers and intended to start adopting that model of play.

Well then, under pressure in his position, the coach did not wait to repeat what he had taken as a positive lesson. And he ended up being rewarded on Saturday night (4), when the very two wide wingers he had picked ended up deciding the match against Cruzeiro at Morumbi, in the clash valid for the 10th round of the Brazilian Championship.

With three goals from Ferreirinha and one from Calleri, converted after a penalty won by Artur, “Machadismo” delivered its best performance so far and secured a 4-1 thrashing over an opponent that has historically struggled at the Tricolor’s home.

The result obviously does not completely ease the coach’s situation with the fans, but it at least brings a bit of peace to Morumbi, ending a run of three games without a win. Quite a lot for a team that once held sole possession of the lead in the country’s main competition.

The Tricolor now has 20 points and sits, at least temporarily, in second place, two behind rival Palmeiras.

Good news, without a doubt, on a day that began turbulently with a crisis erupting behind the scenes. Unhappy with being on the bench and losing space under the new coach, Arboleda committed a serious act of indiscipline and decided to travel to Ecuador on his own.

It could have been the spark for a major fire, but the night began positively for São Paulo. Just 8 minutes in, Marcos Antônio played Artur into the box. He tried to turn past his marker and ended up being brought down by Villalba. Penalty given and converted by Calleri.

Less than five minutes later came the second: in an excellent attacking transition, Artur led the counterattack and played a perfectly weighted pass for Ferreirinha to burst into the area and finish past Matheus Cunha to extend São Paulo’s lead.

The impression was of a dominant night, but the pace of the match dropped. São Paulo began to attack less, and Cruzeiro finally started to settle into the game, managing to get forward, though still without any real purpose or quality.

The pressure from the Minas Gerais side, which at the end of the first half had already resulted in good saves by Rafael, only paid off after the break, right on the first move, when Arroyo burst into the area, humiliatingly dribbled past Dória and delivered a perfect cross for Christian to redirect into the net at the far post.

Tricolor hearts were already filling with anguish, but in the 16th minute, Ferreirinha proved the night truly belonged to São Paulo. After an inswinging corner into the box from Artur, Kaio Jorge almost scored an own goal while trying to clear it, hit the crossbar, and on the rebound the São Paulo winger simply fired home to seal the score.

The goal once and for all crushed any aspirations Cruzeiro still had on the field. And unlike in the first half, São Paulo kept playing incisively, creating good chances and keeping the ball more consistently in the attacking half, sealing three important points on the Easter round.

Back to good results, São Paulo now returns to action in the Brasileirão only next Saturday afternoon (11), against Vitória, in Salvador (BA). Before that, they make their Copa Sudamericana debut against Boston River at 9:30 p.m. Brasília time on Tuesday (7), in Uruguay.

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