By Robbie Blakeley, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Both Botafogo and Vasco won last night in the eighteenth round of the 2013 Campeonato Brasileiro. Botafogo comfortably beat Coritiba 3-1 at the Maracanã whilst Vasco thrashed bottom club Náutico 3-0 at Recife’s Arena Pernambuco.
Botafogo’s result took them third thanks to a wonderful performance from 21-year-old debutant Hyuri. The former Audax player scored twice as the Alvinegro returned to winning ways.
Rafael Marques’ seventeenth goal of the year gave Botafogo the lead after just thirteen minutes before scorer turned provider five minutes before the interval. Given time and space, Marques picked out Hyuri with a pinpoint cross to head home his first goal for the club.
Botafogo continued to take the game to Coritiba after the restart and Seedorf almost added a third less than two minutes into the second half. However, Hyuri soon grabbed his second of the night with arguably the most beautiful goal the new Maracanã has seen.
Collecting the ball outside the area, he beat four markers before calmly putting Botafogo out of sight in the match. Alex scored a consolation for the visitors but it was never going to launch a comeback.
A second half rout from Vasco gave them an easy victory over Náutico. The Rio side started the game slowly and the first half passed without much in the way of goalmouth action.
Nevertheless, the entrance of Juninho and Dakson for the second half gave Vasco the boost they were looking for. Willie opened the scoring with a fantastic strike on 47 minutes before Marlone put the team out of sight just four minutes later.
Náutico tried to mount some resistance but their sixth successive defeat was inevitable. Marlone scored a second in injury-time to seal the points.
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