The Rio de Janeiro team already has 51 points in 21 games
Flamengo and Fluminense tied in their respective commitments
Botafogo, with a brace from the Spanish-Brazilian Diego Costabeat Bahía 3-0 this Sunday in a match for the twenty-first round of the Brazilian Championship and remained the leader of the League with a solid advantage of eleven points over Palmeiras, their escort in the standings.
The Rio de Janeiro team completed 51 points in 21 games (16 wins, 3 draws and only 2 losses) and for several rounds they have had a wide advantage over their pursuers, which they have been able to manage now with 17 rounds remaining in the tournament.
In addition to beating their home game, Botafogo benefited from setbacks from two of its pursuerssince Flamengo and Fluminense tied their commitments, and now he is escorted by Palmeiras (40 points), who beat Vasco da Gama with difficulties 1-0, and by Gremio (36 points), who thrashed Cruzeiro 3-0 .
The leader, commanded by the Portuguese coach Bruno Lage, dominated the match played at home, the Nilton Santos stadium in Rio de Janeiroand won with two goals from Diego Costa in his first game as a starter and another from the youthful Luis Henrique.
The 34-year-old former Atlético de Madrid striker, whom Botafogo hired just two weeks ago to replace the injured Tiquino Soares, a top scorer in the League and whose return is still uncertain, he only needed three minutes to open the scoring after receiving an assist from Victor Sá inside the area.
Diego Costa increased the score after 5 minutes of the second half header after Gabriel Pires took advantage of a Marcos Felipe mistake and found the striker free inside the area.
Luis Henrique completed the scoring 30 minutes into the second half in a deadly counterattack launched by Hugo and in which the young player got ahead of his markers, eluded the goalkeeper and kicked towards the empty goal.
Despite the bulky score in favor of the locals, the duel between the Portuguese coaches Bruno Lage and Renato Paiva was quite even and had chances for both sides, but Botafogo had the aim of Diego Costa and the effectiveness of goalkeeper Lucas Perri, who frustrated several scoring chances for Bahía.
While Botafogo consolidated its lead, Bahía fell dangerously to sixteenth place in the standings, threatened to fall into the bottom four, which are punished with relegation.
Palmeiras, current Brazilian champion and second in the standings, kept pace with the leader by beating Vasco da Gama 1-0 with a goal by Raphael Veiga in the collection of a free kick in the 19th minute of the second half.
The group commanded by the also Portuguese coach Abel Ferreira struggled to win at home, Allianz Parkto a Vasco who knew how to defend himself and in which the Chilean defender Gary Medel stood out.
And the Gremio took advantage of the draws between Flamengo and Fluminense to jump to third place in the standings with their 3-0 win over Cruzeiro, with goals from Uruguayans Luis Suáres and Felipe Carballo and midfielder Pepe.
Flamengo, who was third in the standings, missed the opportunity to get closer to the leader by giving up a 0-0 tie on Saturday in the Maracana stadium against Internacional that left it in fourth place in the standings and 15 points behind Botafogo.
The Rio de Janeiro team, current champion of the Libertadores, owner of the most valuable cast in Brazil and who started the League as the great favoritehe left the stadium booed by his own fans after his impotence against an International that played with several reserves.
The draw further aggravated the crisis at Brazil’s most popular club after this month was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Libertadores by Paraguayan Olimpia and once again left the Argentine coach Jorge Sampaoli on the tightrope.