Juventude took all three points at the Estádio Raymundo Sampaio Arena Independência on Monday evening, beating América Mineiro 1-0 in the thirtieth round of Brazil's Série B. The visitors held firm after their breakthrough, seeing out a result that moved them further clear in the promotion battle.
And here's the thing about this match — everything turned on that sixty-first minute. Marcos Paulo finished what had been building since the halfway stage, cutting inside and firing past the keeper. América had looked dangerous in patches, but by then the visitors had already shifted their shape, letting the game flow rather than forcing it.
América Mineiro sat nineteenth on seventeen points from twenty-nine matches, four wins, five draws and twenty defeats. Their recent run hadn't helped their cause: two straight losses to Vila Nova and São Bernardo, after a narrow victory over Náutico. They created nothing of substance, zero big chances against their opponents' one.
To be fair, Juventude came into this knowing they needed to consolidate. Fourth place with fifty points, fourteen wins and eight draws from the same twenty-nine games. Their last outing had ended in a 2-1 defeat to Sport Recife, but they responded with composure, winning two of their previous five while drawing once and losing twice.
The statistics told a familiar story. Juventude held fifty-eight per cent possession, made five hundred and sixty-four passes to América's four hundred and two. They registered three shots on target against four, but their expected goals figure of 1.3 versus 0.38 showed who was threatening more. América's shots accuracy sat at thirty-one per cent, Juventude's eighteen — efficiency, not volume, decided things here.
The result leaves América still rooted in the relegation zone, twenty points adrift of safety with just four matches remaining. Juventude, meanwhile, extended their lead over the teams below them and kept knocking on the door of automatic promotion. Three clean sheets on the spin now, and a squad deep enough to see this through.
