In the Serie A on Saturday Santos struggled against a resolute Sport Recife team who stifled the hosts despite losing a player to a red card midway through the second half. With a point in the bag the visitors lost concentration in the final minutes and a Paulo Henrique strike saw the hosts come away with an undeserved win. Having sat through this game I can safely say that the Sunday morning game between some ageing Santistas on the beach was far more entertaining.
In Rio, Flamengo won the battle of the red and black hoops against Vitoria 2-1 with Adriano disappointing following his disappearance from the Flamengo camp in mid week.
In the derby of the “smaller” Sao Paulo teams Santo Andre thought they had opened the scoring against Barueri only for the referee to disallow the goal. Subsequent TV replays have shown that only the referee will know why he disallowed a perfectly legitimate goal. To add insult to injury Barueri went straight up to the other end and scored to take a 1-0 half time lead. After another disallowed goal Santo Andre eventually got their reward with a Marcel goal 10 minutes from time.
Sundays early afternoon games started with a shock as lowly Coritiba piled on more misery for Sao Paulo when they pulled off a 2-0 win. Just how the champions of the last 3 years have become so bad is the big question in Brasilian football today, with many wondering if the decision to fire coach Muricy (expected to join Palmeiras this week) was an inspired move to rejuvenate a stale squad or an act of lunacy. Meanwhile the fans of Corinthians and Palmeiras are just enjoying the situation at the Morumbi while it lasts. Cruzeiro sent a reserve team to Goias , resting the first team squad after the momentous Libertadores semi final success in midweek and were duly beaten 1-0. The defeated semi finalists, Gremio, took out their suffering on Atletico Paranaense sending them packing 4-1. In the final afternoon game, Globo TV viewers were made to endure league leaders game against last placed Botafogo. A dull 1-1 draw that left me wondering if Heidar Helgusson has spent his summer coaching both sets of strikers.
In the evening games, Internacional shrugged off their Cup Final defeat to Corinthians with a comfortable 2-0 win against a Nautico team that has now slipped into the relegation places, thanks to a brace from striker Nilmar who was linked with Manchester United earlier in the week. Palmeiras easily won 3-0 at Avai who replace Botafogo at the foot of the table. The future of star striker Keirrison at the Palestre is in doubt after he was once again left out of the starting line up amidst rumours he is about to join Barcelona. More so as he chose to travel to watch Coritiba play Sao Paulo rather than with the team to Avai.
In the Vital QPR prediction league runaway leader Toboboly suffered a lapse in form and together with Clonmany and Lenny could only find 8 points. Boxers renaissance continued with a good 12 points which cut Toboboly`s lead at the top to only 5 points Another solid performance by late starter Lee Cook Fan, who also notched up 12 points which puts him right up their in the chasing pack.
Weeks Scores:
Lee Cook Fan 12
Boxer 12
Clonmany 8
Toboboly 8
Lenny 8
Overall table:
Toboboly 38
Boxer 33
Lenny 26
Flavio B 25
Lee Cook Fan 23
Clonmany 16
NEXT WEEKS GAMES:
Saturday 10.30pm UK Time
Barueri x Coritiba
Palmeiras x Náutico
Avaí x Botafogo
Sunday 8pm Uk Time
Cruzeiro x Atlético-MG
Grêmio x Corinthians
São Paulo x Flamengo
Atlético-PR x Internacional
Sunday 10.30 UK Time
Fluminense x Santo André
Sport x Goiás
Vitória x Santos
With 50 points at stake each weekend its still not too late to enter and knock Toboboly off of his perch at the top or stop site editor Boxer winning yet another prediction league.
Enter here : https://qpr.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=4607&posts=1&mid=31033#M31033
We want to know YOUR thoughts!
To have your say you can comment in the space provided below, or chat about it on the forum.
