Palmeiras’ biggest title drought under Abel Ferreira ended this Sunday, at the Jorge Ismael de Biasi Stadium, in Novo Horizonte. Two years after the Paulistão title won against Santos, the Palmeiras team beat Novorizontino 2-1 and became state champions for the 27th time. In the first game, the team from São Paulo won 1-0.
On a very rainy night, in the northwest of São Paulo, Murillo opened the scoring and Mateus Bianqui equalized for the home team. It was up to Vitor Roque to decide the match and score the second to eliminate the risk of a penalty shootout, which would be necessary if the interior team won by a goal difference.
The two teams entered the field with news that promised to change the dynamics of the game. On the home side, Rômulo was selected by Enderson Moreira, even with the condition that Novorizontino had to pay R$1 million in fines to Palmeiras, the club to which the midfielder belongs. In the first game, he did not play. Abel Ferreira, in turn, selected Jhon Árias, the club’s main reinforcement for the season, as a starter for the first time.
Despite the good quality of the grass, the very wet field affected the quality of the match. The rain was not as heavy as before the match, but it continued to be less intense throughout the first half. From the dead ball, Palmeiras found the way to open the scoring, after a free kick that ended in a shot at the post made by Marlon Freitas and a goal by Murillo on the rebound.
Abel’s team tried to face the water and accelerate plays, without much success, until scoring the goal, when this type of action became less frequent. In lower rotation, he started to give Novorizontino more space. A mistake by Carlos Miguel, who failed to hold the ball in a small area and let it pass between his legs, allowed Matheus Bianqui to push the ball into the empty goal to equalize.
The Novorizontina fans, discouraged until the equalizing goal, reignited and pushed the team to their best moment in the game, with a lot of offensive presence, betting on shots inside the area. The result of the shots was not always the best, but the momentum at least concentrated Palmeiras in the defense field.
Basically, the Palmeiras fans ran after the ball and abused kicks to try to get rid of the pressure. When they managed to return to the attacking field, in the last minutes of the first half, the São Paulo team stopped after Jordi’s miraculous defense to avoid a header from Marlon Freitas.
The second half started very truncated, with too many fouls and not enough ball rolling. Palmeiras had moments when they occupied the attacking field, but there was difficulty in accelerating the plays. Vitor Roque was the main weapon to break the lines, while there was a lack of more active participation from Arias, who threatened goalkeeper Jordi on one of the rare occasions he approached the area.
The tension that had been gaining strength since the home team’s equalizing goal dissipated in the 16th minute, when Jhon Arias shared with Jordi after receiving a throw and the ball was left for Vitor Roque to send into the net. From then on, the shaken Novorizontino could do little to challenge the Palmeiras team and still showed a lot of nervousness, with plays that went a little overboard and irritated their opponents. Throughout the seventh minute of stoppage time, there were only alviverde shouts of “he’s a champion”.
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