São Paulo cruise past Internacional, keep Libertadores hopes alive | OneFootball

As long as there’s bamboo, there are arrows.

Okay, we know, we’ve already used this phrase before in a São Paulo match report. But there’s nothing more fitting to describe the current scenario of Tricolor in the Brazilian Championship.

In crisis, coming off a 6-0 thrashing and with the fans more willing to protest than support at Vila Belmiro, the outlook promised to be dramatic for the Morumbi club on Wednesday night (3rd). Fortunately, the opponent was Internacional. The team from Rio Grande do Sul is going through a much, much worse situation than the São Paulo side. And they were easy prey for Hernán Crespo’s reinforced team, which won convincingly 3-0 in their farewell as hosts in this penultimate round of the Brasileirão.

In fact, there couldn’t have been a better opponent for São Paulo to give the proper response to their fans. And the heroic Tricolor supporters who came down the mountain were rewarded for the rain they endured with a very solid performance from their team.

With the return of Ferreirinha on the left wing and Luciano in attack, Tricolor dominated. They controlled the play, exchanged passes with ease against a fragile Colorado side, and managed to get their transitions and offensive build-up right.

Where they really struggled was in finishing. Almost every perfect ball delivered by Ferreirinha, Marcos Antônio, and Bobadilla ended up being wasted by Luciano and Tapia.

The attacking volume up front hid São Paulo’s old problems in their defensive core. Crespo’s 3-2-5 with the ball leaves the team exposed when they lose possession. There are flaws in the defensive recovery that allow the opponent to appear with some ease in the midfield, especially playing behind the two wing-backs. Fortunately for us, on the other side it wasn’t Fluminense, but Internacional—a bad team, with almost no effective collective plays and inefficient build-up.

At least on this night, unlike in other Tricolor carnivals, the attack made up for the scares at the back. São Paulo opened the scoring at 20 minutes, from an aerial play. Ferreirinha took a free kick from the right and Sabino, completely unmarked, rose to head it in and score.

When the team from the South threatened to complicate things with São Paulo’s slim lead, the team decided to give something it hasn’t had for a long time: tranquility. At 47, in the dying moments of the first half, Maik extended the lead, hitting a shot from the edge of the area after a triangle play with Ferreirinha and Bobadilla.

With the lead widened and the opponent sinking, the second half brought the game’s conclusion. Just two minutes in, Marcos Antônio (again!) delivered a beautiful through ball. And this time Luciano didn’t waste it. He took advantage of Rochet going to ground too early and chipped it over him to score the third of the night.

The victory becomes extremely important for Tricolor to keep their Libertadores dream alive. The team remains alone in eighth place in the standings, now with 51 points, three ahead of Bragantino. This spot is crucial, as if Cruzeiro or Fluminense win the Copa do Brasil, the eighth-placed team will earn a spot in the preliminary phase of South America’s main club competition.

Now, back in a peaceful mood and excited by the good performance, São Paulo heads to their farewell of a frustrating season. They face Vitória at 4 pm (Brasília time) on Sunday (7th), in Salvador (BA), needing a win to perhaps save a year that so far has been completely lost.

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