This is the most unbelievable story and it’s happening right now in Brazil. Our league is played with 38 matches like the Premier League. So, Botafogo started winning everything, they made the best campaing in history during the first 19 games, they had 47 points, with 15 wins and only 2 losses. During this run, they won all their 10 home games, conceding only 3 goals. And by the end of this 19 games they were 13 points clear from Grêmio, the second place. But in the middle of the league, Al Nassr, the team where Cristiano Ronaldo plays, made an offer to have Botafogo’s coach and he accept. Botafogo then get a new manager but things don’t go well, and the players make a pressure to get him fired and keep a guy who was already in the club.

Then, they lost a derby to Flamengo and lost to Atlético Mineiro, the difference fell a little but they won two more games and drew another one. Then they faced Athletico Paranaense home on a Sunday and would face Fortaleza on a Tuesday, but the game against Athletico needed to be finished on Monday because the lights went out during the game, which led to the game against Fortaleza to be postponed. This was a bad thing because on that week Fortaleza would play the Copa Sul-Americana final, and probably would use an alternative team against Botafaogo. The game against Athletico finished 1-1. On that same week, they lost home against Cuiabá.

Then things started to go incredibly downhill and they never won a game since. They would face Palmeiras on Wednesday on game 31, and at the time, Palmeiras was second place, 6 points behind Botafogo. So, if they win, they would open 9 points to second place, with 8 games to play because they had that game against Fortaleza. Botafogo was playing home, and they opened 3-0 on first half. Second half Palmeiras made 3-1, and Botafogo had one player sent off. But then they got a penalty on minute 82, but… they lost the penalty and saw Palmerias make a comeback from 3-1 to 3-4, scoring a goal on last minute. The difference fell to 3 points.

So, next Monday they had a derby against Vasco, who is fighting against relegation, and they lost 1-0. Palmeiras won their game. They were tied on points. On Thursday, Botafogo would face Grêmio at home. Again, they opened 3-1 and then…Luis Suarez scored a hat-trick and won 4-3 to Grêmio. They had bottled two times a 3-1 score at home inside one week and had lost the top of the league. But the craziest thing is that on that day, a RBD show would happen on Rio de Janeiro, on Botafogo’s stadium, so the game needed to go somewhere else and they played on Vasco’s field, which allowed Luis Suarez to play, because Botafogo use a synthetic grass on their field, and Suarez have a knee problem that he can’t play on synthetic grass. Vasco’s stadium, otherwise, have natural grass, so Suarez was allowed to play and score a hat-trick.

Next game, they faced Bragantino away, and was winning the game until last minute, when they conceded a goal and drew 2-2. Then last Sunday they played Santos at home, a team who also is fighting relegation. They were winning 1-0 then conceded a goal on last minute, again. And finally last Wednesday, they were facing Coritiba away, a team who was already relegated and was playing in an empty stadium because their fans fought Cruzeiro fans inside the pitch during a game. At this time, if Botafogo win, they would be only 1 point behind Palmeiras. Everything was normal, they were drawing 0-0 when Botafogo got a penalty on 95 minute. They score. The referee add two more minutes because the delay to shoot the penalty and to celebrate, then on next attack, Coritiba scores on 99 minute. And they fumbled again and was 3 points behind Palmeiras, but they have less goal difference. The only normal game they had was the one against Fortaleza, which they tied 2-2 but without any crazy thing happening on last minute. And to finish, today they drew 0-0 with Cruzeiro and officially don’t have chance to be champions because Palmeiras won a game against Fluminense, who is a Botafogo rival and is thinking about Club World Cup, so they played an alternative team. Right now Botafogo is 5th and they have chances of not getting a place on Libertadores group stage next week, needing to play 2 play-offs to get the spot.

They were the best team in history on the first 19 games, and then the last 19 they have a campaing of a relegated team. They were so ahead that they have now 10 games without a single win and still are on top 5 teams on the league. There is a saying in Brazil that “there’s some things that only happen with Botafogo”, but what happened during this league is way beyond anyone could expect.

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