The Athletic Mineiro he won this Wednesday by 1-2 at Athletico Paranaense in the second leg of the final of the Brazil Cup and in 2021 added another national title to that of the Brazilian Championship that he conquered with anticipation and an ample advantage over his rivals.
A goal in the first half from the attacker Keno and another from the scorer Hulk sentenced the victory of the Belo Horizonte team, which in the first leg thrashed 4-0. The discount was set by Jáderson.
The game was played at the Arena da Baixada stadium in the southern city of Curitiba, the Paranaense stronghold. Despite the wide advantage in the first leg, Atlético Mineiro coach Cuca played with all his starters. Forward Diego Costa, who was injured on the last day of the League, was one of the few absent.
The goalkeeper Éverson, the Paraguayan defender Júnior Alonso, the side of the national team Guilherme Arana, the Argentine creative Matías Zaracho, the Chilean attacker Eduardo Vargas and the gunner Hulk, scorer and maximum figure of the League, lined up as headlines of the ‘Galo’ ( rooster).
For the Paranaense, under the coach Alberto Valentim, were the goalkeeper Santos and the winger Ábner, champions with Brazil at the Tokyo Olympics this year, and the Uruguayan player David Terans, former Mineiro player
In the local team the main casualties were those of Nikao, a figure from the Curitiba team and who is injured, and the experienced defender Thiaho Heleno, suspended. Neither did the attackers Carlos Eduardo and Matheus Babí recover from discomfort.
Because they had defended other teams at the start of the Brazilian Cup, Bissoli and Lucas Halter (Paranaense) and Nathan Silva (Mineiro) were not allowed to play.
Abner (Paranaense) disputes the ball with Zaracho (Mineiro)
When the game was balanced, with dangerous plays for both goalkeepers, Vargas and Zaracho set up a counterattack that left Keno free to put the 0-1 with which ended the first half. In the second, when the locals did not renounce the tie, the Venezuelan Jéfferson Savarino, who had entered with the Argentine Nacho Fernández, enabled Hulk and the powerful scorer did not forgive goalkeeper Santos to put the 0-2 partial. Five minutes from the end, Jáderson discounted with a head blow and put the final 1-2.
Starting in 2021, the Brazilian Cup, which previously brought together the champions and runners-up from the 27 states and the first division teams that did not play the Copa Libertadores of the same year, changed its format and the number of participants increased to 92.
The places in the states increased for the regions with the best ranking, such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with five representatives, and the best classified from Serie A and the champions of B, the Northeast Cup and the Green Cup, the latter with clubs from the Amazon and the Pantanal.
Read also
