Last 4 defined in the Campeonato Brasileiro

Botafogo, Santos, Corinthians and Cruzeiro made it to semifinals, surprisingly leaving Vasco da Gama out of the road

Only four teams prevailed after the last League Matchday in the Campeonato Brasileiro de Clubes. Last round-robin battles merited the tickets for Santos, Corinthians, Botafogo and Cruzeiro, giving way to a semifinals in which the two Paulista sides (Santos and Corinthians), with their crowd backing them in the Arena de Guarapiranga of Sao Paulo, will face Carioca Botafogo and Cruzeiro, from Minas Gerais, respectively.

The League stage conclusion brought huge surprises. Main of them was seeing current Mundialito de Clubes champions, Vasco da Gama, losing to Sao Paulo and being kicked out of the competition. The Gigante da Colina saw themselves 4-5 down by mid third period, and were not able to turn the score around in the remaining minutes, what made Cruzeiro, who were awaiting on the stands for it to happen after solving their match against Flamengo, the semifinalists.

In turn, Corinthians and Botafogo hit the sand acknowledging that they were already almost qualified, as the one losing would hardly be snatched the best 2nd place. Notwithstanding, the two of them were really cautious during the whole match, and only an extra-time hit by the carioca side unbalanced things to decide the leader in the group.

In the last two games of the day, with everything already set, Sport Recife bagged the points against Portuguesa on the penalty shoot-out, and Santos confirmed with a new victory that they are one of the big favourites of the completion, beating Palmeiras 6-2. 

Results and match schedule

Wednesday, March 21st
10h – Atlético Paranaense 8-7 Palmeiras
11.15h – Portuguesa 0-4 Botafogo
12.30h – Cruzeiro 7-3 Sao Paulo
13.45h – AS Arapiraquense 5-8 Santos
15h – Flamengo 0(1)-0(0) Vasco da Gama
16.15h – Sport Recife 4-9 Corinthians

Thursday, March 22nd
10h – Botafogo 7-3 Sport Recife
11.15h – Sao Paulo 6-5 Flamengo
12.30h – Santos 6-4 Atlético Paranaense
13.45h – Palmeiras 3-5 AS Arapiraquense
15h – Vasco da Gama 4-2 Cruzeiro
16.15h – Corinthians 7-3 Portuguesa

Friday, March 23rd
10h – Cruzeiro 7-5 Flamengo
11.15h – As Arapiraquense 6/1-6/2 Atletico Paranaense
12.30h – Vasco da Gama 4-5 Sao Paulo
13.45h – Corinthians 0-1 (et) Botafogo
15h – Portuguesa 0/0-0/1 Sport Recife
16.15h – Santos 6-2 Palmeiras

Saturday, March 24th
SEMIFINALS
11.30h – Santos vs Botafogo
12.45h – Cruzeiro vs. Corinthians

Sunday, March 25th
FINALS
11h – 3rd/4th place Final
12.30h – FINAL