The Guild, one of the most traditional clubs in Brazilian football and that has three Libertadores titles, won this Thursday 4-3 at Athletic Mineiro, brand new champion of the League in Brazil, but the result was not enough to avoid relegation to the second division.
On the last day of the Brazilian Championship, in which only two of the clubs that next year will play the second division and the last places in the Libertadores and the Sudamericana remain to be defined, the Gremio fulfilled its part and defeated the champion of Brazil, but one of his rivals to avoid relegation prevented him from achieving the miracle.
The Gremio not only had to win their match on the last day but also expect defeats from Bahía and Juventude, the other clubs that were threatened with relegation. But, despite the fact that Bahia lost 2-1 in their difficult visit to Fortaleza, Juventude beat Corinthians 1-0 at home with a goal from Chico from a penalty.
With these results, Gremio, seventeenth in the standings with 43 points, three behind Juventude -which maintained the category- and Bahía, second to last with the same 43, joined Sport (38) and Chapecoense (15), both they were already condemned to decline.
This is the third time in its history that the Guild has lost its participation in the elite group of the Brazilian Championship, as it was also relegated to the second division in 1991 and 2004. Its relegation ended a bad season in which it was always in the well of the classification and in which I change coach three times.
It was useless to reinforce with Douglas Costa and Miguel Borja
The Porto Alegre team gave worrying signs from the start, despite being reinforced by important names such as attacker Douglas Costas, former Juventus and Bayern Munich player, or Colombian striker Miguel Borja, who arrived mid-term.
Surprisingly, he fell in the previous phase of the Libertadores, eliminated by Independiente del Valle Ecuadorian, which cost coach Renato Gaúcho his job after four and a half years directing the first team.
The board sought a reaction with Tiago Nunes, but it did not last three months. Then he bet on the return of a heavyweight on the benches like Luiz Felipe Scolari, former coach of Brazil and Portugal, and finally signed Vagner Mancini.
But the gaucho tricolor said goodbye with honor, with a 4-3 victory over the new Brazilian champion with two touchdowns by Diego Souza, another by Douglas Costa and another by Campaz. For Mineiro, who played with substitutes, Dodó, Hyoran and Chilean Eduardo Vargas were discounted. The account could be higher but Miguel Borja wasted a penalty in the last minutes of the game.
The Mineiro, who were crowned champion of the League this year two days in advance, reserved their starters in the last one thinking about the match next Sunday, in which they will face Athletico Parananese for the first match of the Cup final do Brasil.
Despite the defeat, the Belo Horizonte team finished the Brazilian Championship with 84 points and thirteen advantage over Flamengo, the League champion in 2019 and 2020, their escort in the standings and who again disappointed by falling 2- 0 in his visit to Atlético Goianiense on the last day.
Bragantino, Mineiro, Flamengo and Corinthiansse guarantee the Libertadores
After the results of the last day, Bragantino, sixth with 56 points, joined Mineiro, Flamengo, Fortaleza (fourth with 58) and Corinthians (fifth with 57) among the Brazilian clubs that guaranteed direct place for Libertadores.
Bragantino, finalist this year in the South American Cup, got the last direct place in the Libertadores by beating Internacional 1-0 with a goal in the minutes of replacement from Artur, its main star.
Palmeiras (third with 66 points) will also compete in the 2022 Libertadores after having won the tournament title for the second year in a row and Athletico Paranaense for having been champion of the South American Cup this year. Fluminense (seventh with 54) and América Mineiro (eighth with 53) won the right to play the previous stage of the Libertadores and to seek places in the group stage of the tournament.
The clubs that guaranteed their presence in the Copa Sudamericana, which were between tenth and fourteenth in the league standings, were, in their order, Atlético Goianinese, Santos, Ceará, Internacional and Sao Paulo.
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