Welcome back to the Brazil Sports newsletter. This week, we have our first national champions of the year as Athletico won the 2019 Copa do Brasil. There’s the results from a recent football fanbase survey, showing one team well ahead of the rest, plus Brazil’s new left-back and the country’s Formula 1 dry spell. All that and much more. Happy reading!
After an impressive 2-1 win away from home to Internacional on Wednesday night, Athletico Paranaense won the 2019 Copa do Brasil, seeing them pocket BRL 52 million in prize money and a spot in next year’s Copa Libertadores.
The match. With a 1-0 lead from the first leg, Athletico understandably sat deep, remaining resolute as Internacional roared forward, pushed by the 50,000 fans in attendance. Against the run of play, the away side extended their advantage through Léo Cittadini, leading Internacional needing two.
Inter did get one back, but were toothless in the second half, sacrificing creativity for direct, long-ball football that was easy for Athletico to swallow up. In the dying seconds of the game, man of the match Rony slammed home the winning goal after an unbelievable assist from Marcelo Cirino. (More on that in our Goal of the Week, below.)
The boss. After last year’s Copa Sudamericana win (South America’s Europa League equivalent), this was Athletico’s second major title under 39-year-old coach Tiago Nunes. With the age of a veteran midfielder, Nunes—who never actually played professional football himself—has arguably become the club’s greatest manager of all time.
Nunes is part of a recent trend of Brazilian clubs promoting from within. In 2018, he was given the job after promising results with Athletico’s under-23 side, which disputed (and won) the Paraná state championship at a professional level.
In the days leading up to the final, he put his future in doubt, suggesting he was “tired” of football, a line he has now called a “screw up.”
The club. Athletico have never been classed as a “big club” in Brazil, largely due to not being from one of the big footballing cities São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte or Porto Alegre. This week’s cup win seems to have put that to bed however, earning Athletico a seat on Brazil’s top table.
In 2020, Athletico will have participated in the Copa Libertadores nine times, more than “big” Rio de Janeiro sides Fluminense (six) and Botafogo (five).
The Super Cup. As an added detail of this week’s cup win, Athletico are now the first club to qualify for the Supercopa do Brasil, a new competition pitting the Brazilian champions against the winners of the Copa do Brasil. It will take place on January 22, 2020.
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