SEE THE NUMBERS
Season marked by ups and downs in the Brasileirão ended with a place in the Libertadores
Published on December 12, 2024 at 02:00
Bahia experienced ups and downs in the Brasileirão, but ended the year on a positive note Credit: Letícia Martins/EC Bahia
In addition to the place in the Libertadores, Bahia has other milestones to celebrate after the end of the Brazilian Championship. In 2024, the tricolor achieved its best campaign in the history of Series A in terms of points and finished within the top 10 of the table for the first time.
With the 2-0 victory over Atlético-GO, the Esquadrão closed the tournament with 53 points, the highest score achieved by the team in the same edition of the Brasileirão since 2003, when the current dispute format was adopted. The performance earned 8th place among the 20 participating clubs.
Until then, the highest number of points scored by Bahia in Series A had been 50, in the 2017 season. That year, they finished 12th and went to the Copa Sudamericana. The tricolor’s best position had been 11th place, in 2019. The team coached by Roger Machado had a beautiful first round and dreamed of the Libertadores, but fell in the second half and failed to qualify.
The Squadron also set its new record for the number of victories. There were 15 triumphs in the current edition of the Brasileirão, compared to the 13 they achieved in 2017. The blue, red and white club had not finished the championship in the top eight since 2001, when they qualified for the knockout stages and fell in the round of 16 against of São Caetano.
Despite the milestones achieved, Bahia will need to learn some lessons if they want to climb the ladder in 2025. The tricolor started Series A very well and closed the first half in 7th place, with 31 points, but dropped in performance on the return and placed the place in Liberators at risk.
To give you an idea, the team coached by Rogério Ceni had a 54.4% success rate in the first 19 games, and only 38.6% in the last 19. The second round also had a sequence of seven matches without winning. Considering only the performance of the final half of the Brasileirão, the Esquadrão would be in 13th place.
Another point of attention is performance inside and outside the home. While Fonte Nova proved to be a stronghold for the Squadron in Série A, the duels away from Salvador were a real headache.
Of the 53 points that Bahia won, 36 were at home. The Squadron won 11 matches, drew three and lost five. An improvement of 63.2%. Away from home, there were only four triumphs. The team also drew five games and lost ten others, with a performance of 29.9%.
Throughout the season, Rogério Ceni spoke about the different attitudes that the squad presented as home and away. At the end of the Brasileirão, he once again highlighted the fact as a problem that needs to be resolved.
“Often I even know [o que acontece]but I can’t answer everything here. Some things are internal. What improved is that we beat Cuiabá in the final stretch. I think we have to create more personality, believe that it is possible. We only won four away from home. Most will get points at home, but we have to have a little more balance. Often having a more physical team away from home, an option we didn’t have this year. Nico [Acevedo] and Rezende spent many months away. For most of the time we also only had three defenders. I think we have to find that balance and maturity, have more confidence, be more mature and score more points than we did this year”, he stated.
