Cruzeiro U17 Demolish Bahia U17 in Eighteen-Minute Statement
Cruzeiro U17 beat Bahia U17 4-0 in the Regular Season round eighteen of the Brazil U17 championship on Tuesday. The hosts dominated without giving their visitors any real hope of getting back into the game, and here's the thing about a scoreline like that — it tells you everything about where these two teams stand this season.
Cruzeiro sit fifth on thirty-four points from eighteen games, ten wins and four draws keeping them in the upper half of the table. Bahia, meanwhile, languish in sixteenth with just eighteen points, four wins and six draws across the same number of matches. By then you realise this wasn't even close.
The home side's recent form has been anything but consistent. They came through a convincing 3-0 against America MG U17 on the fifteenth, but that followed an embarrassing 1-8 defeat to RB Bragantino U17 nine days earlier. They've also beaten Fluminense U17 2-1 and Vitoria U17 2-0, while drawing 1-1 with Flamengo RJ U17 on the first of September.
Bahia's run hasn't been much better. They've picked up two draws against Vasco and Flamengo RJ U17, but those came alongside defeats to Atletico Mineiro U17 and Sao Paulo U17. The 3-3 draw with RB Bragantino U17 on the eighteenth of August was perhaps their best result of the month.
This result doesn't move Cruzeiro much in the standings, but it does extend their advantage over the teams chasing them. For Bahia, another heavy defeat keeps them firmly rooted in the relegation battle. To be fair, they've shown they can score against each other recently, but that doesn't help when you're losing four goals without reply.
The gap between them now sits at sixteen points. That's not insurmountable in a league this long, but it's enough to make the remaining fixtures feel like a different kind of pressure for the visitors.