Vila Nova defeated Ceará 2:0 at the Estádio Onisio Brasileiro Alvarenga in a Serie B regular season match on Sunday evening. The hosts moved closer to the top half of the table while the visitors slipped further into trouble in the relegation battle. And here's the thing about these games — the result rarely tells you what happened on the pitch.
Breno Augusto gave Vila Nova the lead in the 16th minute, and that was the moment everything shifted. To be fair, Ceará had more possession at 54 per cent, but possession means nothing when you cannot create chances. The visitors managed only three shots on target all evening, while the hosts fired seven at the goalkeeper.
By then the match had its rhythm. Vila Nova sat deeper and soaked it up, making the visitors work for every inch. Andre Luis doubled the advantage in the 75th minute after a period where the home side pressed high up the pitch. There was no value left at that number for Ceará — they simply could not find a way through.
The statistics paint a picture of a game decided by efficiency rather than dominance. Vila Nova recorded 13 shots to Ceará's seven, with expected goals of 1.82 against 0.39. Big chances created tells the same story — two for the hosts, zero for the visitors. Many shots with one goal means chances went begging when the second strike came.
Vila Nova remain in second place with 44 points from 25 games, three wins and four defeats away from the automatic promotion spots. Ceará sit 17th with 28 points and have one foot in the drop zone. The gap between them is 16 points — a chasm that does not close easily.
