Promoted Santa Cruz stay top in Brazil’s Serie A
Rio de Janeiro, May 29 (IANS) A late Tiago Costa own goal denied Santa Cruz their third win from four matches in Brazil’s Serie A football as Chapecoense earned a 1-1 draw against the newly-promoted club.
Arthur opened the scoring for the visitors on the stroke of halftime before Costa unluckily turned the ball into his own net in the 84th minute on Saturday, reports Xinhua.
Despite the result, Santa Cruz remain top with eight points from four matches while Chapecoense are fifth with six points.
Santa Cruz are playing in Brazil’s top flight for the first time since 2006. The Recife-based outfit fell to the bottom half of the Serie D in 2009 and were still playing in the Serie C as recently as 2013.
In Belo Horizonte, Giorgian de Arrascaeta struck late to cancel out Victor Rangel’s opener and earn Cruzeiro a 1-1 home draw against America Mineiro.
In Saturday’s only other match, Ewandro and Thiago Heleno scored first-half goals in Atletico Paranaense’s 2-1 victory over Figueirense in Curitiba. Bruno Alves scored a late goal for Figueirense.