After having their first game against Goiás postponed due to the covid-19 pandemic, São Paulo finally debuted in the Brazilian Championship. The Tricolor paulista hosted Fortaleza at Morumbi on Thursday with the only goal coming from Daniel Alves in a 1-0 victory.
The first half wasn’t as exciting for São Paulo and Fortaleza.
Both teams created little chances with the first attempt coming in the 17th minute by Bruno Melo whose effort was parried away by Tiago Volpi. Ten minutes later, Tricolor responded with an effort by Dani Alves who tricked Felipe Alves but missed. Towards the end of the first half, São Paulo struck. Daniel Alves put away Reinaldo’s sublime cross in the 43rd minute to put his team in the lead. Despite being behind, Fortaleza raced forward and had two chances from Osvaldo and Jackson to put his team level on goal but failed.
In the second half, Fortaleza pressed high to force São Paulo to make mistakes. Three minutes later, Liziero made a huge mistake gifting Juninho a chance at the entrance to the area. Moments later, Fortaleza finally scored their equalizer, but the goal got canceled because the ball was handled before the goal. Fortaleza got better in the final stage still in search of an equalizing goal after Daniel Alves came close to putting his team two nil up.
Fortaleza had two more great chances to score but the match ended that way.
With the win, Fernando Diniz’s team added their first points in the Brasileirão. On Sunday, São Paulo will face Vasco da Gama, while Fortaleza hosts Botafogo at Arena Castelão.
