Analysis: who stood out, what went well and what went wrong in Santos’ defeat against Ceará | Saints

In a rare match in which Marinho practically did not play, Soteldo wasted chances and apparently beat tiredness, Santos did not have the breath to beat Ceará. Now the Brazilian Championship and the Libertadores remain.

After the 0-0 draw in the first leg, at Vila Belmiro, Peixe needed a simple victory to pass through Ceará. In the event of a tie, the decision went to penalties. The owners of the house, however, resolved everything in normal time. Worse for Santos.

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How did Ceará’s goal come about?

At a time when Santos could no longer create opportunities and pressure his opponents, Ceará was showing signs of improvement on the field. After a deflected center, Vina took advantage of the excess and launched a beautiful volley to open the scoring at Arena Castelão.

Who stood out and what worked

Almost no one did well in Santos this Wednesday. In the first half, Soteldo, Felipe Jonatan and Jean Mota gave Ceará’s defense work, but not enough to open the scoring.

Soteldo, in fact, was the one who created the most chances for Santos, but almost all of them in the initial stage. In a counterattack, the attacker found himself face to face with Fernando Prass, but he threw out and wasted Peixe’s best opportunity in the match.

Santos entered the field to attack Ceará, but lacked creativity. With a line of three on his back when he had the ball, made up of Luiz Felipe, Pituca and Luan Peres, Peixe attacked with two full-backs, two midfielders and three attackers. For this reason, he rented the defense field to the owners of the house in the first half.

At least the offensive stance showed signs that it would work. Santos had 66% possession in the 20 minutes of the first half. It was Peixe’s best moment in the match, betting on fast movements.

That alone, however, could not guarantee qualification for the quarterfinals.

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Practically everything. If it weren’t for flashes of good football in the first half, by the way, Santos wouldn’t have hit anything in Wednesday’s game.

In a team that lacks pieces and options for coach Cuca, it is essential that its main players are physically and technically well. For Santos to play well and play his best football, Marinho, Soteldo and Diego Pituca need to be inspired. And that’s not what happened tonight.

Soteldo, in the first half, was the best of Santos. However, alone, he cannot cut through a full defense for an entire match.

Marinho, on the other hand, could have played his worst game for Peixe in 2020. Irritated, he accumulated complaints with referee Leandro Vuaden and mistakes and more mistakes, especially in the second half, when Santos was worse.

However, to blame Marinho alone would be to ignore Santos’ biggest problems on Wednesday.

In the first half, even when he was feeling better, Peixe used to turn the game from left to right to try to get rid of the strong brand of Ceará, trying to create an element of surprise. However, the vast majority of attempts were unsuccessful: Madson was almost always well marked.

Despite having more possession of the ball, Santos could not translate the numbers into dangerous shots for the goal defended by Fernando Prass. He stopped in the good defense of Ceará, capable of canceling Marinho, Soteldo and Kaio Jorge.

In the second half, Santos still seemed to feel physically exhausted: they entered the field on Sunday and traveled to this Wednesday’s game on Monday.

El Pez, then, became an easy option and with obvious ideas: he bet only on the speed of his attackers, who, well marked, needed to put the ball almost in the defense field and had no breath to fight ahead.

Thus, the team led by coach Cuca ended up eliminated from the Brazil Cup. Santos returns to the field on Sunday, at 6.15 pm, against Red Bull Bragantino, in Bragança Paulista, for Brasileirão.