The tie between Ceará and Palmeiras ended in a 2-2 draw in a late fixture on Wednesday at the Arena Castelao. The draw was enough to see Palmeiras move to the semifinals of the Copa do Brasil to face America-MG who eliminated Internacional on penalties.
The victory at home in the first leg of the quarter finals in São Paulo gave the away side more confidence coming into this tie.
Verdão opened the scoring early on doubled their lead before the end of the first half. However, Ceará came back fighting in the second half and equalized but it wasn’t enough to cause any consequence on the tie. Raphael Veiga scored the two goals for Palmeiras while Vina and Tiago Pagnussat scored for Ceará.
Palmeiras entered the encounter with a lot of absentees leaving Mayke on the left side and Aníbal in the attack. There were few chances in the first period of the game but in the 28th minute, Raphael Veiga won a penalty kick conceded from Charles and opened up the scoring. It wasn’t long until Raphael Veiga once again doubled his team’s advantage with his second goal of the evening and put Verdão 2-0 up going into half time.
In the second half, Ceará came back hungrier and connected more as a team while Palmeiras relaxed and took their foot off the pedal for obvious reasons. This gifted the home side more confidence and in the 57th and 62nd minutes they got their first and second goal of the night with the goals coming from Vina and Tiago Pagnussat. Later on, Leandro Carvalho was sent off for a bad foul. The match ended 2-2 with Palmeiras advancing to the next round.
Palmeiras returns to face Goiás next Saturday in Serrinha while Ceará receives Atlético-MG on Sunday at Arena Castelão.
