Corinthians needed just 45 minutes to win the first in Série A of the 2022 Brazilian Championship. With a Botafogo still lacking in chemistry, with technical and physical deficiencies, Timão found spaces, opened 3-0 and saved in the second half to guarantee the 3-1 victory.
Timão’s victory in the debut of the @brasileirao!!! Go Corinthians!! ???
Botafogo 1 ? 3 Corinthians
⚽ Paulinho
⚽ Gustavo Mantuan
⚽ Lucas Piton#CorinthiansGrande#DayDeCorinthians#Go Corinthians pic.twitter.com/zk8SE9Hx8m— Corinthians (@Corinthians) April 10, 2022
first half show
The first half was a show apart from Corinthians. With a lot of freedom to play on the left, Willian, Paulinho and Lucas Piton had a carnival in Botafogo’s defense and had no difficulty building the score from 3 to 0.
Botafogo only threatened at 4 minutes, when Erison got in Cassio’s face, dribbled the goalkeeper, but did not finish. After that, Timão was absolute in the confrontation and dominated all actions. The first goal came in the 16th minute. Patrick de Paula played wrong in midfield, Willian advanced on the left and gave a beautiful three-fingered pass for Paulinho, at first, to hit the back of the goal.
Ten minutes later came the second. Corner taken from the right, head deflection in the middle of the defense, Roger Guedes fixed it and Mantuan checked. The referee indicated that Roger Guedes was offside, but the VAR (video referee) corrected and validated Timão’s goal.
What was already difficult, got worse. With the crowd booing the team’s performance, Botafogo was completely lost and suffered the third in a great goal. Lucas Piton played for Willian, who passed with a heel to Paulinho. The shirt 15 returned it to Willian, who found Piton, alone, to make the third.
With a large advantage on the scoreboard, coach Vítor Pereira spared his main players, such as Willian and Paulinho. Corinthians decided to hold on to the result and saw Botafogo grow in the second half. The team from Rio began to press and reduced the opposing advantage, in the 20th minute. Penalty over Matheus Nascimento, which Diego Gonçalves took with ease.
Even though they had to look for a draw, Botafogo’s lack of chemistry, technical deficiencies and fatigue prevented the team from Rio de Janeiro from putting Corinthians in danger. Timão just held the result and still had two good chances to extend, which were saved by Gatito Fernández. In the end, 3 to 1 for the visitors and frustration of the Botafogo fans, who showed up in force at the Nilton Santos stadium.
In the next round of the Brazilian Championship, Corinthians will face Avaí, on Saturday (16), at 19:00 (Brasília time), at Neo Química Arena. Botafogo faces Ceará on Sunday (17), at 19h, at Castelão.
