Goals from Willian from the penalty spot in the first half, and Gabriel Menino with a glorious shot from outside the area in the second half helped Vanderlei Luxemburgo’s team to rake up the victory.
Bolívar started out with the upper foot in the opening stages of the game. Three minutes into the first half, Roberto Fernández had the first chance of the game, he received the ball on the left close to the penalty area, but he failed to to test the goalkeeper Weverton and parried his shot away.
Palmeiras’ first oppportunity of the game came from Raphael Veiga few minutes later after Zé Rafael’s deep pass. Later on, Palmeiras had two shots from outside the area with Verdão looking the more dangerous.
Palmeiras broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute from the penalty spot taken by Wllian after Ron was brought down by Jusino.
In the second half, Ábrego made a dangerous throw with a shot from outside the area. But the move failed to bring fruit. In the 14th minute of the second half, Gabriel Menino received a sublime pass from Roberto Fernández; hit the front outside the area giving the goalkeeper no chance at all. He extended his team’s lead to 2-0 up.
After Palmeiras scored the second goal, Bolívar became more aggressive in attacking forcing Weverton to make a great save pushing the ball to the corner.
Bolívar’s goal came following a corner kick, to end the game 2-1.
Palmeiras will return to the field against Guaraní next Wednesday, in Asunción, Paraguay. Verdão plays their next Brasileirão outing on Sunday, against Grêmio, in Porto Alegre.
