Respect for the opponent and fear of suffering a decisive goal mixed and made the players think twice before risking a shot, goalkeepers prefer to hit the ball than risk holding it.

The real spectacle was made by the Corinthians fans. Mosaic and following the music script distributed the day before, they made a deafening noise in Pacaembu. They just couldn't shake Vasco, led by Juninho's experience. In the field, the absence of a center forward caused difficulties for the host. Tucked between the defenders, Alex did not yield. When he tried to look for the game in the middle, the reference to the tables was missing. That's why Timão insisted on the sides. In one of these plays, the ball was left over for Emerson's kick, deflected providentially by the defense.

There was so much desire, so much delivery and so many carts that absences became inevitable. Good for those who have Juninho on the team. At the first chance, Cássio hit badly, to the middle of the area, and was lucky that the ball hit Alecsandro, and not the other way around. In the second, Pernambucano took an angle and narrowly missed. Eder Luis was the most fired and made a lot of mistakes, in addition to having played a childish game with Jorge Henrique. After exchanging unfriendly words, the Corinthians, without reason and reckless, leaned his head against the Vasco's, who collapsed as if hit by a cannonball. Leandro Vuaden ended the cuteness of both with yellow cards.

It was up to Paulinho and Fernando Prass the move of greatest emotion in the first stage. The steering wheel went up more than it seemed possible in the middle of the area and headed well, but the goalkeeper, with the pose for the photographers, saved the cariocas. The best was yet to come...

In the first minute of the second half, shirt 10 Diego Souza gave a cart almost at the defensive end line to avoid a corner. That and the same teams' formations showed that the tone of the show would remain dramatic, more sweaty than showy.

The minutes ran at the same pace that tension dominated Pacaembu. After Renato Silva missed another ball, Vasco started to choose the famous safety ball, popularly known as "bicão forward".

Tension that reached the polished Tite. When he saw Vuaden not miss a foul on Paulinho and then give Emerson a yellow card, which prevented his rival from progressing, the coach overreacted in his complaint and was sent off.

With no one to talk much on the bench, Diego Souza had the chance of time, of the game, of Vasco's life at Libertadores. The midfielder intercepted Alessandro's shot in the middle of the field and fired alone at Cássio. The eyes of more than 35 thousand people were wide open, waiting for the confrontation, as if it were a medieval duel. The right foot kick was weak and allowed the goalkeeper to deflect, whose name was sung in a tone of thanks, relief and devotion. To increase the drama, in the corner kick, Nilton hit the crossbar.

The certainty that every goal conceded would be fatal was finally established, but the hosts played their role of attacking. Timão smothered Vasco in his field, in his area. Emerson's kick on the post, after Prass's deflection, left the bunch of madmen choking on the goal scream.

I scream that it would only come out after a corner kick. Paulinho went up a lot again and, this time, Fernando Prass couldn't help it. Tite, in the numbered ones, went wild. The whitewashed nation went wild.

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