Brasileirão Matchday 18 Roundup

After a fierce Matchday 18 on the Brasileirão season, all the top four teams won, with Fortaleza jumping over Cruzeiro, Bahia, and São Paulo to achieve the 4th spot.

Botafogo keeps its top positioning with a 3-point lead over the defending champion, Palmeiras, who also had a successful match and didn’t allow that gap to increase. Flamengo got a win and pushed ahead of São Paulo.

Things also got interesting at the bottom of the board, where two teams in relegation danger managed to get victories and make things tighter.

With the top teams looking strong and the bottom teams clawing their way up, we believe things will be fun going forward.

Brasileirão Matchday 18 Betting Odds

Brasileirão Matchday 18 Roundup: Flamengo 2 – 1 Criciúma

An unusual situation occurred in football during this match: a penalty was taken because a player threw a second ball to another in the middle of an attack inside the area.

40 minutes of ST were played, with the teams tied at 1-1. Everton received inside the rival area and, seeing that he was not going to be able to intercept it, midfielder Barreto decided to kick another ball from inside the area (thrown from the stands) to stop the opponent’s advance.

He moved the ball that was in play with his action, cutting off the shot that Flamengo’s 11 was going to take, and, as a result, the referee awarded a penalty.

Gabigol converted the penalty into a goal and gave the victory to his team, which got to 34 points.

Brasileirão Matchday 18 Roundup: Palmeiras 2 – 0 Cruzeiro

The 2nd-placed Palmeiras faced the currently 7th-placed Cruzeiro, and even though we expected the hosts to get the nod here, they made it look easy.

First, they landed the opening goal when Jose Manuel Lopez reached the net in the 36th minute, but they halted Cruzeiro from taking their shots even as the visitors held the ball for 58% of the time.

The hosts landed almost double the amount of shots than their opponents, and even though they didn’t have to prove anything, as they held the lead since early in the match, Gabriel Menino went ahead for a second goal in the 2nd minute of the added time.

Brasileirão Matchday 18 Roundup: Grêmio 2 – 0 Vitória

When the 17th and 18th placed teams faced off on the field, it looked like Grêmio had something to prove, as they went on to keep the ball for 59% of the match, and shot over twice as much.

The defense was on point, as even though Vitoria tried to attack, they couldn’t get close and had 0 shots on target during the match.

Grêmio opened the score in the 2nd half when Yeferson Soteldo hit the net in the 63rd, and then had Reinaldo Manoel Da Silva score a penalty in the 6th minute of added time just to seal the deal.

Brasileirão Matchday 18 Roundup: Atlético Mineiro 2 – 0 Vasco da Gama

This match was supposed to be quite contested as Atletico Mineiro, the previously 11th-placed team, was going to host the previously 10th-placed Vasco de Gama, who had been on a pretty strong four-match win streak.

However, things didn’t go as expected, as the Hosts decided that they’d not be intimidated by their opponent’s momentum, and Hulk took the first goal of the day in the 27th minute, only to set up another in the 39th.

With that early lead, Atletico Mineiro decided to keep the aggression going. They managed to hold the ball for longer and take almost twice as many shots as their opponents.

After the match, both teams switched places on the board, as Atletico Mineiro is now 10th and Vasco de Gama is 11th.