After two consecutive victories in the last minutes, São Paulo couldn’t get out of a 0-0 draw with Inter de Limeira, for the seventh round of Paulistão, in Morumbi. On a rainy night in São Paulo, Rogério Ceni’s team had full control of the game, but the balls that entered the stoppage time of the other matches, this time, stopped at the crossbar of the interior team.
With a strategy of prioritizing the defense, Inter de Limeira gave the ball to São Paulo and made the hosts work on lateral plays. Better in terms of what had been showing in Paulistão, the tricolor team took some danger, but not enough to leave with the three points, even after more than 50 crossings.
The result puts a brake on the São Paulo reaction and keeps the team in second place in group B, with 8 points, three less than the leader São Bernardo, who has one more game. Inter de Limeira, on the other hand, is the lantern of Group A, the same of the Corinthiansbut with the same 7 points as Água Santa and Guarani.
what comes now
The two teams return to the field next Sunday (20). São Paulo will face a classic against Santos, in Vila Belmiro, at 18:30 (Brasília time). A little later, at 20:30, Inter de Limeira receives the Railway.
Live from Sao Paulo
The best: Leo
Cast as a left-back, Léo had almost no work in defence. Offensively, he was positioned by Rogério Ceni practically as a winger and managed to give Inter de Limeira work on the shore plays.
The worst: Rodrigo Nestor
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The midfielder showed an intensity below the other São Paulo players. Despite a good finish in the first half, Nestor lost the ball nine times and could not help in the creation of São Paulo plays.
São Paulo maintains style of play and pressures Inter
The part of the final of the match against Ponte Preta, which resulted in the two goals that guaranteed the victory, seems to have pleased Rogério Ceni. Even with different players, in a lineup with five changes, the coach kept much of the way the team played in Campinas.
In the attack, Nikão was moved from the right to share the central lane with Calleri, just as Éder had done against Ponte Preta. With Inter de Limeira little bothering, the movement allowed Léo to become almost a winger, forming a 3-3-4 when São Paulo went up to the attack, with the side and Marquinhos wide open and Calleri and Nikão on the inside, with the ex-Athletico player sometimes moving around on the Argentine’s back.
With much more possession of the ball than the opponent (66% to 34%), São Paulo allowed itself to play more freely. As Léo went up, Pablo Maia retreated to make the exit of the ball with Arboleda and Diego Costa. The ease of the three with the ball at their feet benefited the construction of the game of the Morumbi team, which, unlike the other times, crossed a lot into the area, but with clear goals.
In one of them, at 28 minutes of the first half, Gabriel Sara received a cross from the left, but headed out. Shortly before that, Nikão already headed weakly after table with Marquinhos.
Inter barely arrives, but when it does, it’s to scare Jandrei
Inter de Limeira went to Morumbi with the clear objective of giving the ball to São Paulo and trying their luck in the counterattacks. The strategy meant that for most of the first half there were no problems for the home team’s defense. The two best chances came only in the final part of the initial stage.
At 34 minutes, Geovane advanced through the middle and kicked hard and low, forcing Jandrei to palm to the side. The goalkeeper would still return to work just before the break when sending a head for a corner.
In the second half, the strategy was maintained, but the pressure imposed by São Paulo prevented space for a dangerous move by Inter de Limeira. Jandrei left the second stage without having to work.
10 minutes, six corners, and São Paulo almost scores
The return to the second half was with even more pressure from São Paulo on Inter de Limeira. During the first 10 minutes, the ball practically did not leave the area of the inside team. There were six corners taken by the hosts who, from so much pressure, had their best chance so far.
The ball was live in the area after Nikão’s corner. Sara tried to send it with her head, but it was left to Calleri, who kicked hard. Matheus Galezani threw himself into the ball’s trajectory and avoided, on his knees, the São Paulo goal.
Ceni changes the pieces but keeps the structure
At the press conference after the match against Ponte Preta, Rogério Ceni said that he did not defend his job, but the style of play he likes to impose on his teams. Against Inter de Limeira, this was shown on the field. Substitutions made in the second half did not change the way the team behaved.
By putting Reinaldo in place of Pablo Maia, Ceni changed three positions in the team with just one substitution. Reinaldo went to the left side, where he likes to play, while Léo was moved to the defense and Diego Costa started to act as a defensive midfielder.
Just like Léo had done until then, Reinaldo came on to play almost as a winger, as Inter de Limeira didn’t go on the attack. With more ease in offensive arrivals, shirt 6 quickly began to bother. In the 26th minute, he dribbled the mark and crossed close. The ball hit the post and almost entered the goal of Inter de Limeira.
DATASHEET
SÃO PAULO 0 X 0 INTER DE LIMEIRA
Reason: Paulistão 7th round
Date and time: February 17, 2022, at 9:30 pm (Brasília time)
Local: Morumbi Stadium (SP)
Public: 15,098 people
Income: R$ 428.341,00
Referee: Vinicius Goncalves Dias Araujo
Auxiliaries: Alex Ang Ribeiro and Amanda Pinto Matias
WHERE: Vinicius Furlan
goals: –
Yellow cards: Éder, for São Paulo; Rodolfo Filemon and Tito, for Inter de Limeira
red cards: –
SAO PAULO: Jandrei; Rafinha, Diego Costa (Juan), Arboleda, Léo; Pablo Maia (Reinaldo), Rodrigo Nestor (Alisson), Gabriel Sara; Nikão (Nikão), Marquinhos (Rigoni) and Calleri. Coach: Rogério Ceni.
INTER OF LIMEIRA: Rafael Magrão; Léo Duarte, Rodolfo Filemon, Xandão, Rafael Carioca; Jhony Douglas, Galdezani (Celsinho), Lima (Matheus Mancini), Geovane (Tito); Diego Tavares (Pedro do Rio) and Ronaldo (Thiago Alagoano). Coach: Vinicius Bergantim.
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