Santos crush Juninho Paulista’s Ituano 9-1

Madson, Arouca, André and Pará do the statue of Liberty

A Santos side without Robinho and Neymar annihilated Ituano 9-1 in the estádio Pacaembu on Sunday. With Robinho injured, and Neymar in the USA with a Santos B team for the game against RB New York, it was André’s night after he grabbed a hat trick to bring his total to 10 in the competition. Paulo Henrique and Madson hit a brace a-piece. Ituano included former Brazil internationals, Juninho Paulista and Roque Júnior, but had three men sent off. Wesley went for Santos. See the highlights

In 2^nd place are Santo André who thumped Bragantino 4-1. Rodriguinho was on target once again and now leads the top scorers with 11. See the goals

São Paulo stay 3^rd after seeing off lowly Mogi Mirim 3-0 in the Morumbi. Keeper Rogério Ceni scored from the penalty spot to bring his tally to 89 goals in his career. Cléber Santana and Hernanes also struck but coach Ricardo Gomes still came in for criticism after another below-par performance from his team. See the goals

Despite losing 2-0 at Grêmio Prudente (formerly Barueri) Corinthians remain 4^th in the table. Mano Menezes decided to rest key players and once again a Corinthians side with players such as Roberto Carlos and Danilo failed to impress. Two second-half goals from Robson sealed the points for Prudente. After the match, Mano Menezes tried to justify his team’s lack lustre performance by saying that the Libertadores is Corinthians priority and that he couldn’t risk injury to the likes of Ronaldo. The Musketeers though are not in action in the Libertadores until 1^st April when they take on Cerro Porteño. See the highlights

Palmeiras’ chances of making the semi-finals took another blow after losing 2-0 at home to Ponte Preta. Diego and Finazzi did the damage in the second-half to earn Ponte’s first win against Palmeiras in the city of São Paulo in 29 years.

With four games to go in the group stage, places in the top four remain up for grabs and teams such as Portuguesa, Botafogo, Prudente and Ponte are still in with a shout.

At the bottom, the sides in trouble are Monte Azul, Paulista, Sertãozinho and Rio Branco.

See the Campeonato Paulista round 15 table and the rest of the results here

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