In the late afternoon of this past Sunday (February 18, 2024), Palmeiras and Corinthians played out a historic Derby in over 100 years of rivalry.
Join us as we delve into this electrifying match.
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Index
Before the Derby…
Palmeiras
Talking about Palmeiras’ good form is redundant. The São Paulo team has been stacking up titles since 2015, and there hasn’t been a moment of crisis.
Now, in 2024, they may have lost the final of the Supercopa do Brasil to São Paulo, but it didn’t shake the institution’s foundations.
Always showing resilience in adversity, Abel Ferreira’s squad usually bounces back in the following games, but we see Palmeiras struggling at the moment.
They beat Ituano 2-0, but drew 1-1 with Santo André, the bottom team in the Paulistão.
Furthermore, they defeated the strong São Bernardo team in the last minutes of the match.
The absence of Raphael Veiga, the main player of this golden Palmeiras generation, has been strongly felt. This was evident in the game against São Bernardo.
He was expected to reinforce the team already in the Derby, as there was an expectation of a quick recovery from his eye infection, which did not happen.
Thus, the team from the west side of São Paulo arrived for the match against their biggest rival with the need to win at all costs since this confrontation is considered a championship within itself.
Corinthians
After the worst start to the Paulistão in its history, Timão showed significant signs of recovery.
Portuguese coach António Oliveira took over from Mano Menezes, and the team’s improvement was immediate.
While under the previous coach from Rio Grande do Sul, there were five consecutive defeats and the imminent risk of relegation to the Paulistão A2, with Oliveira, there are two wins and one draw (in the Derby).
The coach arrived for the crucial match against Portuguesa at home. A 2-0 victory. Then, they defeated Botafogo-SP 4-1 away.
The change of coaches boosted morale in players who could deliver good results but had been performing poorly.
The most notable case is Yuri Alberto. He had been heavily criticized by the fans lately, but he scored three goals in the last three matches.
Thus, not only coach António Oliveira, but the entire Corinthians team faced their first real test against their biggest rival.
Palmeiras 2 – 2 Corinthians
Given the moment of both teams, Palmeiras adopted a more offensive posture, while Corinthians chose to play with low or medium pressure, which clearly didn’t work.
Unfortunately, I’ll end the mystery of this article and advance that Palmeiras dominated Corinthians in various aspects of the match.
With aggression from the outset, Verdão surprised with Flaco López’s long-range shot from midfield, attempting to chip Cássio.
Corinthians’ goalkeeper scoffed at the attempt, making a face at the Argentine, as if to say: “Not here!”
Timão demonstrated glaring inattention in the defensive system, which was highlighted in a play in the 17th minute. Cássio poorly plays a ball, which goes out for a throw-in.
With all the calm in the world, the throw-in is taken to Endrick, who is in midfield. With little or no pressure, he turns and passes to Flaco López.
The centre-forward goes one-on-one with the Corinthians goalkeeper but shoots from distance, hastily, wide of the goal. A clear chance for Verdão.
Shortly after, following the same pattern of high pressing, Endrick steals the ball in the opponent’s defensive third and again serves Flaco López, who cuts inside and shoots over the crossbar. This marked the third chance created by the same player.
The inevitable goal happened. With the lines pushed up, defender Murilo plays the ball for Verdão. In a cross cleared by the opposing defense, the ball gains altitude. Wesley, Corinthians’ winger, just watches it and delays making contact, failing to notice Naves’ arrival, who intercepts the ball and passes to Marcos Rocha.
The full-back controls and passes to Endrick, who was waiting with little marking, as Corinthians’ lines were pushed back.
Upon receiving, the prodigy boy has time to shake off Fausto Vera, who was coming to tackle, and has all the angle necessary to strike and open the scoring.
The powerful low shot finds Cassio’s glove, but still ends up in the back of the net.
It was the first goal, and perhaps the last, of Endrick in a Derby. The boy celebrated heavily.
Image: Fabio Menotti/Palmeiras/By Canon
Even close to stoppage time, the future Real Madrid player had another clear chance to extend the lead. In a beautiful move, evading the marking with a lofted touch, he goes one-on-one with Cassio but is hindered by his own teammate. The weak shot goes into the goalkeeper’s hands.
The second half comes, and there’s nothing new under the sun. Marking another game well below par, Fausto Vera makes a simple mistake, passing to the opponent in the defensive field, resulting in a shot over the goal by Marcos Rocha.
The Palmeiras full-back was on fire, and just a minute after this opportunity, he scored a fantastic goal. In a combination of passes between Flaco López and Endrick, the youngster left the experienced full-back in a scoring position with just one touch.
Marcos Rocha cuts onto his left foot and takes a beautiful placed shot, which goes into the top corner of the goal.
However, when reviewed by VAR, it was found that the scorer was in an offside position, by a detail.
It wouldn’t take long for Palmeiras’ second goal to finally come. In the 67th minute, Piquerez takes a corner. Flaco López competes in the air with Corinthians’ defense and amidst the chaos, manages to direct the header into the corner of the goal.
It’s already Flaco’s sixth goal in just seven matches, sharing the league’s top scorer position with Dellatorre from Mirassol, and crowning his excellent goal-scoring form.
Image: Fabio Menotti / Palmeiras
After the goal, it was when Timão started to show some reaction. A significant factor for this was the entry of Pedro Henrique. The player recently signed from Internacional made his debut and changed the game.
With a lot of speed and depth, he started to bother on the left side of the attack, creating two chances in three minutes.
Despite this, the game was still very much controlled by Palmeiras, and predicting any result other than victory seemed like a pipe dream. Verdão created three more opportunities to score after the 80th minute, but failed to convert them.
Even with Corinthians’ goal, in the 86th minute, the game seemed over. Once again, Yuri Alberto received a cross from Gustavo Mosquito, to narrow the score.
Image: LUCAS CORREA/ENQUADRAR/ESTADÃO CONTEÚDO
The situation became even more complicated for Corinthians when, in the following play, Rony goes one-on-one with Cassio and is fouled.
As the last man, the goalkeeper is sent off. There were no more substitutions left, so the chosen one to take his place was the tallest defender, Gustavo Henrique.
The free-kick was promising, and Piquerez took responsibility. However, the Uruguayan full-back seemed not to have noticed that a outfield player was in goal and attempted a powerful and placed shot towards the top corner, which went wide. In that situation, it would have been more sensible to just make Gustavo Henrique work.
The ball is cleared, and in the final seconds of the five added by the referee, defender Murilo makes an absolutely criminal challenge on Yuri Alberto. Simply kneeing him in the ribs, which we now know caused fractures.
Yuri promptly falls and says he can’t breathe. Soon, he was taken off the field, leaving his team with two men down.
With the procedure to safely remove him from the field, another five minutes were added.
Timão quickly takes the free-kick, and Pedro Henrique tries to dribble towards the area but is fouled by Rony.
In the ensuing free-kick, a great hope of the Fiel Torcida, Argentine Garro, prepares to take the shot. The distance was long, and it seemed to be the last opportunity.
He strikes it well and with power. The undisputed idol of Palmeiras, goalkeeper Weverton, goes for the ball but withdraws his hands, thinking the shot would miss the goal. He was wrong. At 90+9′, it grazes the post and goes in.
Reports say that silence in Arena Barueri was absolute. The only sound echoing was the desperate cries of joy from the Corinthians players.
Image: Rodrigo Coca/Ag Corinthians
