Água Santa beats Palmeiras and takes the lead in Paulista – 02/04/2023 – Sport

Água Santa and Palmeiras opened the Paulista Championship decision with a much more balanced match than many imagined. Incomparable in size, tradition and financial capacity to the powerful opponent, Diadema’s team surprised him and won by 2-1, thanks to a goal scored by Bruno Mezenga in stoppage time.

The blue and white club, which started the century playing in the floodplain, courageously faced the three-time champion of the Copa Libertadores, created multiple opportunities and opened the scoring, with Mezenga, at the end of the first half. Endrick equalized at the start of the final stage, but Mezenga, at 47, defined the marker.

The match was held at Arena Barueri, in Barueri, because the Água Santa stadium in Diadema was unable to receive the decision. The champion will be known next Sunday (9), at Allianz Parque, in São Paulo. Neither team will play for a draw. In case of a new equality, there will be a penalty shootout.

The first moments of the match in Barueri gave the impression that the favorite, with a majority in the stands, would have no difficulty in confirming this condition. With open ends, to force the defense to spread out in the marking, Abel Ferreira’s team created difficulties for the opponent.

Goalkeeper Ygor Vinhas had to work hard on kicks from Dudu, Breno Lopes and Gabriel Menino. But, little by little, the ABCD team managed to control the ball a little more and build more dangerous plays.

The strategy adopted by Thiago Carpini’s men was to maintain possession as much as possible and speed up the moves only when there was a good opportunity. This patience generated extremely dangerous passes in defense and good moments in attack.

The long-awaited chance appeared, after Zé Rafael’s mistake. Lucas Tocantins advanced in a two-on-one situation and chose the pass shot. The ball was deflected off Marcos Rocha, and the opportunity wasted, albeit momentarily. In the corner, at 44 minutes, Weverton did not leave, Bruno Mezenga scored.

Palmeiras returned from the break with Vanderlan replacing the injured Piquerez and Endrick replacing Breno Lopes, which led Rony to the left wing. The team started the final stage pressing for the tie and reached it in the seventh minute: Raphael Veiga took a corner kick, Zé Rafael deflected it, Endrick concluded.

Água Santa initially felt the blow, with multiple mistakes, but finally settled down on the field and started to attack. Lucas Tocantins even hatted the Weverton goalkeeper before kicking it out. Weverton did well in Mezenga’s shot in the area and then had the post to avoid having the net swung by Bruno Xavier.

In the final 20 minutes, Diadema’s team seemed satisfied with the tie and tried to cool things down. Already at 47, however, another chance was offered in Marcos Rocha’s wrong ball output. Patrick Allan, who had just entered the match, gave Mezenga an accurate pass to beat Weverton and feed the hope of a huge upset in the Paulista Championship final.