São Paulo buzzing for derby, aiming to match 2005 world champions | OneFootball

Like all moral, spiritual, and psychological support, a statistic almost went unnoticed after São Paulo's victory over Fortaleza last week.

After reaching negative historical series that the Tricolor had not seen for a long time with the sequence without victories and goals that the team had been adding, coach Hernán Crespo can celebrate his entry into Tricolor history. And this time equaling a unique mark since 2005, an unforgettable year for the tri victories in Libertadores and World Cup.

Yes, it had been 20 years since São Paulo had won a match with a player from at least 21 minutes of the first half.

The last time was on July 9, 2005, when Alê's expulsion at 18 minutes of the game did not prevent a 2-0 victory over Flamengo, at Morumbi, also for the Brazilian Championship.

But Crespo got a huge bonus. This is because in away games, the drought was even longer: since March 7, 1998, when Serginho was expelled at 20 minutes, but the Tricolor beat Santos 3-2 at Vila Belmiro, for the Paulista Championship.

Of the last four times that São Paulo had a player expelled, in three it managed to score a goal after the red card, including the duel against Fortaleza.

This had happened against Libertad and Náutico, both in May, although it is necessary to note that the Pernambucans also had a player expelled, so there was numerical equality. The exception was against Athletico-PR, in the game that eliminated Tricolor from the Brazil Cup.

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