São Paulo advances to the round of 16 of the Copa Sudamericana.

Despite dominating possession throughout the match, it took São Paulo a while to break through Ceará's defense, who were playing for a draw at Morumbi. They only managed to do so when they started playing with a center forward: the same Cícero who was responsible for the team's last victory, against Avaí, 17 days ago. After that, it became easy for the Tricolor team to win 3-0, ending a four-game winless streak and qualifying for the round of 16 of the Copa Sudamericana, gaining momentum on the eve of the derby against Santos, on Sunday, at Vila Belmiro, in the last round of the first half of the Brasileirão.

In the Copa Sudamericana, São Paulo will only play again in October. Their opponent will be determined by the match between Libertad and the winner of the game between Juan Aurich (Peru) and La Equidad (Colombia).

Due to the elimination, Ceará loses the chance to play its first official match in history against a foreign team. It must now focus exclusively on the Brasileirão (Brazilian Championship). Its next match is against Bahia, on Sunday, in Fortaleza.

With Casemiro's return after playing for the under-20 national team, Adilson Batista decided to revert to a formation with three defensive midfielders, taking Rivaldo out of the team. João Filipe took Xandão's place in defense, and Fernandinho remained in attack alongside Dagoberto. The defensive midfield gave São Paulo possession throughout the first half, but lacked quality in passing.

In relation to previous matches, the team showed more motivation, but continued to make too many mistakes when approaching the edge of the penalty area. So much so that, despite having considerable possession, they only managed two shots on goal: one by Juan in the opening minutes, and another by Fernandinho in the 23rd minute, but both went wide to the right of Diego's goal.

Furthermore, São Paulo could have scored on two other occasions. In one of them, Dagoberto was fouled in the penalty area and fell. The referee not only didn't award a penalty but also showed the striker a yellow card. Later, Cícero, who came on for the injured Fernandinho, even dribbled past the goalkeeper, but the play was stopped due to a controversial offside call.

Stopped by the solid defense of João Filipe and Rhodolfo, Ceará did even less. They barely penetrated Rogério Ceni's penalty area in the first half. They gave up on playing to defend.

The second half began with São Paulo looking more dangerous. The first opportunity came from Casemiro, with a header. Then, Cícero took a long-range free kick and Diego made his first good save. On the third chance, in the 10th minute, when the crowd was already clamoring for Rivaldo, Carlinhos crossed, Cícero controlled the ball with his chest and shot past the goalkeeper.

When Ceará decided to attack, São Paulo sealed the game. Dagoberto attempted an individual play and lost the ball at the edge of the area. Casemiro recovered the ball and passed to Lucas, who shot from distance into the bottom right corner of Diego's goal. A goal to end the midfielder's poor form, who even got emotional during the celebration.

With Ceará's defense wide open, it was easy. Lucas launched a counter-attack and passed to Dagoberto on the left side of the box. The striker miscontrolled the ball, but still managed to reach it, shoot firmly, and score the third goal.

The fourth goal could have come from a pass by Cícero to Dagoberto, where the striker tried to chip Diego, but Egídio cleared it with his hand. Marcelo de Lima Henrique ignored the clear penalty. In another chance for Dagoberto, he controlled the ball beautifully in the area, cut past the defender and tried a chip shot. Diego saved it.