Sao Paulo This Wednesday managed to break the wall that Ceará built to achieve a long-suffering 1-0 victory in Morumbiwith a bit of Nikao who had just left the bench and despite the penalty wasted by the Argentine Calleri, in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana quarterfinals.
The striker unbalanced in the 71st minute this highly disputed clash between two Brazilian teams and which made it extremely difficult for the São Paulo team, a three-time champion of the Libertadores that seeks to break a drought of great titles that has dragged on since 2012.
Ceara resisted with the rigor that had led him to win the eight games he had played to date in the silver tournament of the Conmebol until Nikao controlled at the top of the area and launched a whipping with his left leg.
Calleri could sentence bordering on the 80th minute, but joao ricardo stopped the maximum penalty and kept the tie alive, from which the rival of the winner of the duel between Atletico Goianense brazilian and Uruguayan nationalelated with the return of his prodigal son, striker Louis Suarez.
Tonight, neither of the two teams managed to prevail in the first half in which the defensive oversights of São Paulo.
Although everyone started out quite shy. No one wanted to make a false step. The parsimony of the locals broke it Welingtonleft back converted to lane.
The Brazilian defender has plenty of self-confidence and was the escape valve for those of Rogerio Ceni because both Luciano and Callerithe two scorers of the Tricolor from São Paulo, were not very fine.
At minute 29, Nino Paraiba incited his own with a shot to the post that shrank the fans of the Morumbiin the first great occasion for Ceará.
paraiba, along with Joao Ricardo, was the best of the visitors. Hyperactive, the Brazilian side complicated whenever he could the trio of rival defenders, who this Wednesday did not have the best night of him.
Before the break, Philip Alves avoided the goal of the Colombian striker Steve Mendozaafter a gift from the defense, and Joao Richard He did the same when coming out of a corner, stopping a point-blank shot from Léo.
Though Sao Paulo He came out with another energy in the second half.
In the first five minutes he approached the area with more danger than in the entire first half, with a string of corner kicks in his favor that, however, he failed to convert into a goal.
The gasoline did not last long for the painting Ceni, that he re-entered that taciturn rhythm again. The exporter realized and made a double offensive change. It was the turn for the Argentine Galoppo, newly hired, and Nikao, who would end up scoring the only goal of the match.
Shortly after the penalty came caused by Calleri and decreed by VARthat the Argentine striker himself would be responsible for making mistakes.
Quite a relief for a Ceará that will be forced to come back in a week at the Arena Castelao in Fortaleza, if they want to continue making history.
– Data sheet:
1. Sao Paulo: Philip Alves; Igor Vinicius, Miranda, Léo, Diego, Welington; Igor Gomes (m.65 Giuliano Galoppo), Rodrigo Nestor (m.95 Andrés), Gabriel (m.64 Pablo Maia), Jonathan Calleri (m.84 Eder) and Luciano (m.65 Nikao).
Coach: Rogerio Ceni.
0. Ceará: Joao Ricardo; Nino Paraíba, Luiz Otávio, Messias, Victor Luís; Richard Coelho, Richardson, Vina, Diego (m.4 Fernando Sobral), Stiven Mendoza; and Iury Castilho (m.55 Cleber).
Coach: Marquinhos Santos
Goals: 1-0, m.71: Nikao.
Referee: Chilean Piero Maza admonished Nino Paraíba, Welington, Victor Luis and Pablo Maia.
Incidents: first leg of the quarterfinals of the South American Soccer Cup, played at the Morumbí stadium, in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, before 52,338 spectators.
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