Sport and Grêmio were in two opposite ends in the table but each side had something worth fighting for as they played out to a 1-1 draw at Ilha do Retiro on Saturday night.
For Sport, the game was a much needed push to move away from the relegation zone as far as they can while Grêmio looked to get back to winning ways after a disappointing defeat and elimination in the Libertadores at the hands of Santos.
Grêmio were rocked by an early goal when Sport opened the scoring in the 9th minute via Dalberto.
Tricolor came back pushing for the equalizer as much as they could but the first half ended in a 1-0 lead in favor of Sport.
The second half started in even worse fashion for Grêmio after captain Kannemann was given his marching orders in the 52nd minute following a second yellow card offence.
Sport continued to be resolute and Grêmio were lacking that effectiveness in the final third. It all changed in the 73rd minute when a VAR review saw Grêmio awarded a penalty after Marcão kicked Churin’s leg.
Pepê converted the resulting spot kick and grabbed the equalizer for his side. In the midst of all the chaos from the penalty, Sport’s goalkeeper coach, Jorcey Anísio, was dismissed off the pitch as well.
With the result, Sport are up to 14th place with 29 points while Grêmio failed to keep the pressure on the top spots and remain in fifth place with 42 points.
For their next outings, Sport travel to Goiás next Saturday while Grêmio welcomes Atlético-GO a day after on Sunday.
