By Robbie Blakeley, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Fluminense came from behind to beat Portuguesa 2-1 in the 21st round of the Campeonato Brasileiro at the Maracanã Stadium last night. Having started the game in awful fashion the players staged a comeback in the second half to lift the club into the top half of the table.
Portuguesa remain in the relegation zone but were unlucky not to come away with at least a point after outplaying their hosts for the entirety of the first half. They opened the scoring on 33 minutes with a well deserved strike.
Moisés crossed and Diogo, left completely alone by the Flu defense, headed home. At the half-time while Fluminense were booed vociferously by the almost 20,000 fans inside the stadium; what they had seen from their team was dreadful.
Yet the second half couldn’t have been more different. Biro Biro came on for Rafinha to give the side more speed. The strategy paid off, on the hour mark the referee awarded Flu a penalty when Moisés handled inside the penalty area.
Rafael Sóbis smashed the resulting spot-kick straight down the middle for his seventh goal of the campaign. The goal inspired the home side and Portuguesa retreated, seemingly happy to escape with a point.
THen on 72 minutes Fluminense completed the turnaround. Sóbis crossed from the left and Wágner, almost on the goalline, poked home.
This afternoon three Carioca teams are in Brasileirão action. Vasco host São Paulo whilst Flamengo and Botafogo travel to Ponte Preta and Santos respectively.
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