Palmeiras surprisingly won de Champions' Cup and by doing so booked its place
in next years' Libertadores Cup, alongside Cruzeiro, champion of the Brazilian Cup,
and the two best teams of the upcoming Brazilian Championship. Here are the
reports of the final stages :

SEMI-FINALS - 1ST LEG

19 JULY 2000

SPORT 1 : Nildo 49
SÃO PAULO FC 2 : Ilan 55, Marcelinho 77

São Paulo was very fortunate to escape of this match with a victory. Sport
completely dominated the first half, forcing goalkeeper Rogério to make a couple
of great saves. After the break, Sport still was the better team, and they opened
the scoring in a penalty kick converted by Nildo. In their first attack of the match,
São Paulo tied the game. Marcelinho (São Paulo's best player this night) crossed
low to Ilan, who poked it in. With renewed energies, the 'Tricolor' went to the
attack, and took the lead of the series through Marcelinho, who scored after a
cross by Souza.


FLAMENGO 2 : Petkovic 63, Reinaldo 66
PALMEIRAS 1 : Taddei 78

The first half of this match was quite even, with the teams missing each a couple
of good chances to score. After the break, Flamengo took control of the actions
thanks to the sending off of Paulo Turra. First, Flamengo scored in a penalty kick
converted by Petkovic (the man of the match). Just three minutes later, Reinaldo
made it 2x0. It seemed that the team from Rio de Janeiro would get a wider
margin of victory, but their players relaxed, allowing Palmeiras back into
contention. In the 78th minute, Taddei scored a goal that kept Palmeiras' hopes
alive for the second leg.

Red Card : Paulo Turra (Palmeiras)
Attendance : 23,274


SEMI-FINALS - 2ND LEG

22 JULY 2000

FLAMENGO 0
PALMEIRAS 1 : Taddei 24
(Palmeiras wins 5x4 on penalty kicks)

Flamengo dominated in the first minutes and created some nice chances to score.
In spite of that, it was Palmeiras who scored first, after a fast counter-attack
started by Asprilla, that passed the ball to Taddei, who rounded goalkeeper
Clemer and shot into the net. After the goal, the match lost pace, and few chances
were created. The free kicks by Petkovic (once again the man of the match) were
the biggest threat to Sergio's goal. The most important play of the second half
was Pena's sending off. After a harmless shock between the Palmeiras player and
Luis Alberto, the Flamengo defender pretended to have been hit on the face and
the referee believed him. With both teams seeming content with the result, the
match went to the penalty shootout. The first nine shots were converted and
Reinaldo missed the decisive shot for Flamengo.

Red Card : Pena (Palmeiras)


SÃO PAULO FC 1 : Marcelinho 16
SPORT 3 : Adriano 38, 57, Marquinhos 81
(Sport wins 4x3 on aggregate)

As it happened in the final of the Brazilian Cup, São Paulo FC blew another great
chance to go back to the prestigious Libertadores Cup after this unexpected
defeat. The 'Tricolor' started the match better and in the 16th minute Marcelinho
opened the scoring, taking advantage of the rebound of a shot by Ilan. At that
point, Sport needed to score two goals to send the match to the penalty shootout
(or three to qualify). And so they did. First, Adriano dribbled Fábio Aurélio and
shot a rocket, leaving no chance to goalkeeper Rogério. Twelve minutes after the
break, Adriano struck again, taking advantage of a distraction of São Paulo's
defence. Irony : Adriano is in fact a São Paulo FC player, but he's been loaned to
Sport. With the psychological advantage, Sport dominated the rest of the match.
In the 75th minute, they were awarded a penalty kick, but it was saved by
Rogério. With nine minutes to go, Sport scored their third goal through
Marquinhos, earning a deserved 4x3 aggregate win on the series.

Red Cards : Fábio Aurélio (São Paulo FC), Juninho Rodrigues (Sport)


FINAL

25 JULY 2000

PALMEIRAS 2 : Asprilla 33, Alberto 55
SPORT 1 : Nildo 87
(Palmeiras wins the title)

The first half of this match was very boring. Both teams were afraid to allow
goals and lacked talent to create more elaborate plays. Palmeiras, who was
slightly better, opened the scoring through Asprilla, who was left all alone in the
box to head the ball home after a corner kick. After the break, Sport attacked
more, but they were caught off guard in a counter-attack, that Alberto converted.
Trailing by two goals, Sport never seemed able to recover that deficit. With three
minutes to go, Nildo scored a consolation goal for his team, but it was clearly too
late, and Palmeiras booked its place to play in the Libertadores Cup for the third
straight time.

Tomaz R. Alves
tomaz@trivela.com
http://trivela.com