Santos were held on home turf and played out to a 1-1 draw with Ceará. Marinho opened up the scoring for the home side early on in the first half before Samuel Xavier equalised for the visitors in the 37th minutes.
With the draw, Santos have now gone four games without a win, which leaves them in 8th place and Ceará in 10th place.
Santos started the match with a very high tempo. Marinho got the first goal chance in the opening minutes of the game, but his effort was saved by Fernando Prass.
But then in the 11th minute, Marinho this time made no mistake and put his side in the lead. Soteldo started the counter attacking play, crossed the ball to Diego Pituca who teed up the forward to open up the scoring.
Vozão almost leveled matters six minutes later but failed to capitalize on their chance. Santos were dangerous on the counter attacking play and had chances to extend their advantage with Felipe Jonatan, Kaio Jorge and Marinho but all of them fluffed their lines.
Ceará started getting better in front of goal and got their reward in the 37th minute. Samuel Xavier was in the right place to take in the rebound after John saved Cléber’s headed effort.
Santos pressurized Ceará but both sides were very much equally matched. In the 68th minute, Marinho came close to scoring his second of the night but his effort was deflected off Ceará’s defence.
Substitute Arthur Gomes deflected a goal into the back of the net following Marinho’s cross from a corner. However, a VAR review saw the goal disallowed for a hand ball involved in the build-up.
Santos’ next fixture is against Boca Juniors in the Libertadores semifinals on January 6 while Ceará faces Inter for the Brasilerao at Castelão on January 7th.
