Juventude eliminated São Paulo from the Copa do Brasil on Wednesday with a stoppage-time goal at Estádio Alfredo Jaconi in Caxias do Sul, turning a tie that had begun with a 1-0 São Paulo win at Morumbis into a painful exit for the visitors. The match, played at 19h, decided a place in the round of 16 and ended the way Juventude needed most, after the first leg had left them chasing the result.
São Paulo arrived with the advantage from the opening match and could have advanced with a draw. Juventude, by contrast, needed to win by two goals in normal time or by one goal to force a penalty shootout. The late finish erased that cushion and sent Juventude on while leaving São Paulo to explain how a tie it had led for most of the week slipped away at the last moment.
The result mattered beyond the bracket. Juventude had entered the night with a five-game unbeaten run in Série B, but Maurício Barbieri was still short of a full starting full-back pairing. Diogo Barbosa was suspended after a red card, Raí Ramos was out with injury, and Mandaca was recovering from ankle discomfort and could only be considered a surprise inclusion among the squad. On the other side, São Paulo also had defensive problems, with Alan Franco and Rafael Tolói unavailable through injury, while Lucas Ramon was out and expected to be replaced by Cédric.
That made the tactical balance fragile from the start, and the pressure only rose as the game moved deeper into the second half. Roger Machado planned to keep Cauly in the team in place of Ferreirinha, trying to preserve continuity in a match that São Paulo could not afford to chase recklessly. But the visitors were already carrying a four-game winless streak in the season, and the stoppage-time elimination will only harden the scrutiny around Machado and his team’s form.
Rodrigo Jose Pereira de Lima of Pernambuco was the referee for a match shown live by sportv and Premiere. For Juventude, the late goal was the moment that changed the contest and the round. For São Paulo, it was the kind of ending that makes a narrow first-leg win feel like a missed opportunity.
