By Georgia Grimond, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The winner of the Copa do Brasil football championship was decided last night, Wednesday December 2nd, at Allianz Park in São Paulo. After two hours of hard play the score was 2-1 to Palmeiras, which pushed the game to penalties. Palmeiras triumphed 4-3.
This was the second game of a two-match final. Santos has previously won 1-0 when the teams met at Vila Belmiro two weeks ago. As a result Palmeiras needed a two-goal lead to be victorious, hence, based on the aggregate score, a winner was decided on penalties.
With a packed and raucous stadium, Palmeiras were buoyed by their home supporters. Dudu scored both before and after half-time, but it was Santos’s Ricardo Oliveira, an international forward for Brazil’s selecão, who scored and forced the game to its nail-biting finish.
Fernando Prass, Palmeiras’s goalkeeper, not only defended his team’s end but took their last and fifth penalty, only to put it in the back of the net and clinch the game. Prass is now being hailed a hero and Palmeiras are celebrating their first title victory in their new stadium which they have been playing in since November 2014.
The match was a clash between two of Brazil’s most successful teams. This is Palmeiras’s third Copa do Brasil win, bringing their total number of national titles to eleven. Santos follows with nine.
Along with the title, Palmeiras now have a place in the Copa Libertadores da América, an international competition between the best clubs in Mexico and South America. They will be joined by the four top scoring clubs in the Brasileiro Série A competition which will decided this coming Sunday December 6th.