Thanks to another prominent performance of the young striker Estêvão, Palmeiras qualified to their 12th consecutive semifinal of the Paulista Championship, by defeating São Bernardo 3-0, on Saturday night (1st).
Abel Ferreira’s team now awaits the results of the other quarterfinals, which take place this Sunday (2) and Monday (3).
The alviverde team will arrive at the next phase packed by the announcement, last Friday (28), the hiring of Vitor Roque, Barcelona-ESP, for € 25.5 million (about $ 154 million), the most expensive transfer of Brazilian football.
The 20-year-old striker, who had been playing at Real Betis-ESP via loan, has already been registered with the Paulista Championship and, if he has already performed before the semis, can help his new team in search of an unprecedented state-time state championship.
In this Saturday’s match at the First of May Stadium, in São Bernardo do Campo (Greater SP), both teams followed the expected game plan: the most aggressive visitors, trying to open up the score quickly, while the home owners closed in defense and sought quick counterattacks.
The difference came from the feet of striker Estêvão, author of the first two goals of the match. At 16 minutes of the first half, after a long pass from goalkeeper Weverton to Flaco López, Stephen received, straightened the ball at the entrance of the area and kicked hard in the corner of the goal, without giving chance to goalkeeper Alex Alves.
At the end of the first stage, at 46 minutes, having received the ball on the right and without passing options, shirt 41 left a defender behind, advanced towards the area and kicked left, hard, in the opposite corner of the goal of São Bernardo. 20 minutes into the second half, the striker would still have a goal annulled by the video referee. The 17-year-old is already scheduled to leave for Chelsea-Ag, mid-year.
13 minutes into the second half, Flaco López closed the scoring with a header after receiving cross from Richard Ríos.
“I am very happy to help Palmeiras advance the phase. We were very resilient, we came from a difficult classification, but now we were able to classify and go out with a very important victory against a very difficult team,” Estêvão told Cazétv after the match.
Coach Abel Ferreira has already counted on Saturday with the two reinforcements presented by President Leila Pereira last Thursday (27), defenders Micael and Bruno Fuchs. Despite having added 11 titles of national and international competitions accumulated in the last five years, the team had been under pressure from the fans for new signings and, due to the new regulation of the state, has almost not qualified for the quarterfinals.
São Bernardo, who arrived at the knockout with the second best campaign in the group stage, continues in search of his first victory over Palmeiras-now there are 9 losses and 1 draw in 10 meetings-and his first Paulista semifinal.
Crosses of the next phase will be defined from the winners’ campaigns in the quarterfinals. This Sunday (2), Corinthians – which had the highest score in the group stage – welcomes Mirassol at 6.30 pm at Neo Chemistry Arena, and Red Bull Bragantino goes to Vila Belmiro to face Santos at 8:45 pm. On Monday (3), it is the turn of São Paulo and Novorizontino meet at Morumbis at 20h.
With Saturday’s victory, Palmeiras went to 26 points and took second place among the classifieds to the quarterfinals, ensuring that he will play the semifinal at home, regardless of the opponent. In the first position, at the moment, is Corinthians, with 27 points.
It is the first time since 2020 that the four major advance to the knockout phase. In 2021, 2022 and 2023, Santos stayed out; Last year, Corinthians was eliminated in a round in advance.
Inter de Limeira and Água Santa, both with seven points, made the worst campaigns of the competition and were demoted.
