São Paulo lacklustre, lose to Palmeiras and crash out of the Paulistão | OneFootball

São Paulo is eliminated from the Campeonato Paulista.

On the night of this Sunday (1st), the tricolor team performed far below the average shown in the last eight games, during which they achieved an impressive positive streak, and ended up losing 2-1 to rivals Palmeiras in Barueri (SP), in the State Championship semifinal.

The result also extends the negative streak of the Morumbi club against their rival, now the longest in history: it’s been 11 consecutive games without managing to beat Palmeiras.

For tonight’s match, Hernán Crespo decided to experiment. He started Luan among the initial eleven, leaving Danielzinho on the bench. The result was devastating, as we’ll see.

The game already began with bad news for São Paulo because, just 7 minutes in, after a mistake in the build-up, Vitor Roque recovered the ball for them, breezed past the defense, and found Maurício, free in the box, to slot it home and open the scoring.

This could have been a motivational factor for the Tricolor, but the night didn’t seem to belong to the team. Out of sync, São Paulo simply couldn’t play for the rest of the first half. They spent the 45 minutes without building anything effective, showing a total lack of harmony and making many passing errors.

Things only improved in the second half. And that was after a controversial play. At 3 minutes, Luciano advanced down the left, tried to cross, and saw the ball deflected by Gustavo Gómez’s arm, in a penalty not awarded by the referee.

Worse for São Paulo, because at 11 minutes came their second goal, with Flaco López redirecting a cross in the box.

At 23 minutes, São Paulo pulled one back, with Calleri converting a penalty awarded for a foul by Marlon Freitas on Bobadilla.

The goal gave the Tricolor a boost and they started to play better, but inspiration was lacking in the attacking sector. Despite having more possession and finally managing to mark their rival, when it came time to finish the plays, São Paulo failed miserably.

Out of the Paulistão, São Paulo will only return to the field at 8 p.m. (Brasília time) on the 12th (Thursday), when they will face Chapecoense at Canindé, for the Campeonato Brasileiro.

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