Santos will meet Athletico-PR on Sunday at 18h30 at Vila Belmiro without Neymar, who is suspended after his third yellow card in the draw with Chapecoense. It is the kind of absence that changes the shape of a match before it starts, because Santos has to face one of the Brasileirão's strongest sides while trying to steady a league campaign that has been running behind schedule.
The timing explains why this game is drawing attention now. Santos has 22 points and has won only once in its last five Brasileirão matches, with three losses and one draw, while Athletico-PR arrives in third place with 37 points from 21 matches and just two points behind Flamengo. That gap matters on both ends of the table: Santos needs relief near the bottom, and Athletico-PR is chasing the teams above it.
Cuca has already framed the immediate task in simple terms. After Santos advanced in the Copa do Brasil in midweek, he said the club needed two straight home wins to build momentum in the Brasileirão and carry that lift into the next stage of the Copa do Brasil and Sul-Americana. He also made clear that Athletico-PR will not give much away, describing it as a light team that is also very physical and has been playing very well.
That is the part Santos cannot ignore. The club has the morale boost of qualification behind it, but the league numbers have not improved: recent defeats to Botafogo, Grêmio and Coritiba still hang over the side, and the draw with Chapecoense is the match that cost Neymar his place for Sunday. Lucas Veríssimo is also out with a calf injury and Igor Vinícius is sidelined with back pain, leaving Cuca with a thinner group than he would like for a fixture of this weight.
There is still one open question that matters inside the match itself: who replaces Neymar. Cuca has a choice between Miguelito and Benjamim Rollheiser, and the answer will tell Santos how aggressively it wants to attack a game it must treat as a chance to stop the slide. Athletico-PR is expected to start Mycael in goal and use a more consistent midfield with quick transitions, which means Santos will need control, not just hope, if it wants the night to turn.
For Santos, the path forward is clear enough. The Copa do Brasil run bought breathing room, but the Brasileirão table still demands points, and Sunday offers no margin for another slow start.
