Athletic Mineiro, after winning the Brazilian Championship title in November, beat Athletico Paranaense 4-0 this Sunday in the first leg for the final of the Brazil Cup and the double crown was practically guaranteed in what has been the best season in its history. With a double from Chilean Eduardo Vargas and goals from Hulk and Keno, the Belo Horizonte team will win the Copa do Brasil title, even losing 3-0 in their visit to Paranaense in Curitiba next Wednesday. second leg of the final. The Curitiba team, who won the Copa Sudamericana title in November, will need to win on Wednesday by four goals difference at home to take the decision to penalties or by five goals difference to win the title.
Before the 50,000 fans who came to the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte, who cheered on the team with the shouts of two-time champion (Mineiro won the Copa do Brasil once, in 2014), the team led by coach Alexi Stival ‘Cuca’ dominated the game from start to finish and was far superior to his rival. Hulk, the team’s top scorer and who was chosen as the best player in the Brazilian League this year at 35 years old, opened the scoring in the first half from a penalty and I said no he increased the advantage when the Paranaense tried his only reaction. Vargas, who entered to replace the injured Spanish-Brazilian striker Diego Costa, set the final score with goals at 10 and 24 minutes of the second half.
This Sunday’s win was the biggest in a Copa do Brasil final in the history of the second most important national tournament in the country. The Belo Horizonte team was able to finish this year with the two most important titles in Brazil in addition to having been champion of the state of Minas Gerais and having reached the semifinals in the Copa Libertadores. Mineiro, who could not reach the final of the continental tournament after crossing with Palmeiras, ultimately the winner, finished the Libertadores undefeated, was the best club in the group stage and had an overwhelming campaign in which they eliminated the Argentines Boca Juniors and River Plate.
Mineiro are favorites for the Copa do Brasil title not only because of the wide advantage they gained in the first leg but also because of their status as Brazilian champions and because of the great moment they are going through. It is the same for having a millionaire cast headed by Hulk, who, in the year in which he returned to Brazil after 16 seasons abroad, was elected the best player in the Brazilian Championship, of which he was also a scorer, and which may also be scorer of the Copa do Brasil, as he dominates the standings with seven goals. Also in the Mineiro cast are Diego Costa (former Atlético de Madrid), the Venezuelan Jefferson Savarino, the Argentines Matías Zaracho and Nacho Fernández, and the Olympic champion winger Guilherme Arana.
