It’s interesting that Botafogo knew how to be clinical today (21) as Abel’s team has become accustomed to being in recent years. The home team started off on the bottom, but then dominated the game thanks to the good performance of Caio Paulista, Richard Ríos and Estevão. The problem is that they lacked efficiency when they managed to get closer to John’s goal. Flaco López missed an unbelievable goal in the first half and wasted a good chance in the second.
Then Botafogo’s efficiency showed. Palmeiras’ defense failed to communicate, Gustavo Gómez created a chance and saw Igor Jesus receive a pass to make it 1-0. From then on, the game seemed to be over. Verdão threw themselves into attack, but the good creative play that had been taking shape until then turned into just a few crosses. The visitors took advantage to make it 2-0 and move towards qualification.
Flaco López scored a goal to keep the fans believing in a miracle for five minutes. Rony even managed to equalize when the referee was already counting down the injury time and Gustavo Gómez managed to turn the game around, but VAR showed up to mark the Paraguayan’s hand and prevent another historic Palmeiras comeback.
