Palmeiras put up a horrendous display against Bahia but pulled off an undeserved 2 x 1 win. I don't get it. These players have had so much rest in the past 2 months and they play like they are exhausted as if they are playing in 3 competitions for 2 months. At a point during the match I had to check the temperature in Salvador to see if it was 40 C. With this result we stay in the fight for the title with Botafogo playing Atletico in a few mins. But Atletico are lining up with a mixed team resting Hulk, Scarpa .... Corinthians are now with a chance to qualify for the Libertadores after winning another match. Depay scored a nice goal.
Funny typo in the post-game paragraph of UOL's PBP for Cuiabá x Flamengo: "O resultado mantém o Flamengo na vice-lanterna, com chances remotas de permanecer na Série A. O Flamengo, por sua vez, já está classificado para a Libertadores e busca, neste momento, alcançar o Fortaleza." Flamengo won. But more importantly, Botafogo is playing at Atlético-MG right now and Palmeiras won earlier. Botafogo need to win, or Palmeiras will be less than 3 points behind them.
Botafogo drop a couple points. Scoreless draw. Was not expecting this after Atletico went down a man. Botafogo dominated but Atletico defended well ... Botafogo didn't really create many great scoring chances.
Fortaleza lost an opportunity to make the race for the title even more interesting. Had they beaten Fluminense yesterday, they'd be only 3 points behind Botafogo and 1 point behind Palmeiras with their direct matchup coming up. You could have had a situation where Botafogo drop points today, and Fortaleza, assuming they beat Flamengo at home, could have leap frogged both with a draw in their match.
Botafogo are in a weird stretch in this Brasileirão. Aside from the Vasco game, they scored only 4 goals in 7 matches. Barely enough to keep gaining points. 3 of those goals also came in the dying minutes of games. They've only conceded 1 goal in that stretch.
Palmeiras win their game 1 x 0 on a rain drenched pitch. Botafogo were losing until the very end and again pulled a goal back in the final minutes to save a point with an own goal. Both are now level on points but Palmeiras lead on number of wins and they play on Tuesday. It's a home game but we've done badly against all teams in the top 5. No wins, 4 draws and 3 losses. A win would probably seal the title given the tie breaker advantage ... given I am pretty sure we'd get one win in the final 2 games. A draw leaves things wide open.
Gomez misses a free point blank header and then Botafogo score on the first time they come forward from a corner. And Abel keeps insisting on Rony ... who also didn't even put the ball close to the goal on a nice cross. FML
Oh well. Botafogo do still need 4 points to guarantee the title, because as you pointed out, Palmeiras have the tiebreaker, so if Botafogo lose one of the last two matches and Palmeiras win out... Palmeiras have Cruzeiro (away) and Fluminense (home) Botafogo have Inter (away) and São Paulo (home) Botafogo's matches on paper are tougher, and with the Libertadores pressure that makes it tougher too... but it feels like Palmeiras could drop points too. Inter are still in it mathematically, along with Fortaleza, who drew 0x0 with Flamengo today. Both are 8 points behind and have 3 matches left. To win, they'd have to win all 3 of their matches and watch Botafogo lose 2 and Palmeiras lose at least 1.