It’s almost as if the top teams in the Brazilian Championship have intentionally decided to keep the best of the drama for the last.
In what was a rather unique round, one of the pick of the results saw Internacional lose to Sport Recife at Beira Rio on Wednesday.
Inter were widely expected to open up a four-point gap over Flamengo but we saw a rather unexpected outcome. An impressive 12-game unbeaten run finally came to an end in disappointing fashion.
Colorado started the game brightly until a key moment in the 26th minute defined the game. Uendel was shown a straight red card for a needless tackle on Marquinhos and the game took a different turn from then.
Against all odds, Sport took the lead through Marcao in the 38th minute to stun the leaders but it didn’t last long. Three minutes late, Patrick leveled matters to score his sixth goal of the season.
With the break headed for a stalemate, Dalberto restored the lead for Sport in extra time of first half.
Inter did all they could to grab an equalizer in the second period but Sport held on to claim a big win and one of the most shocking results of the round.
It is a rather peculiar round as all of the top four teams failed to win their games. With Inter losing, Flamengo, Atletico-MG and São Paulo all drew their games.
With Inter currently on 66 points, it is also the least points a leader has seen in the Brazilian Championship at this stage of the season since 2011. All leaders since 2012 have had at least 71 points after the conclusion of the 35th round.
With three games to go, Inter still top the table but just by a solitary point now. The deciding fixture for the title could come in 10 days from now when Inter travel to Maracanã to take on Flamengo.
For Sport, the victory was also crucial for them as the win lifted them out of the relegation zone to move up to 1th place.
