(MENAFN- Arab Times) Striker Gilberto scored in second-half injury time to help Vasco da Gama defeat Botafogo 2-1 to win their first Rio de Janeiro state title in 12 years on Sunday. Vasco won 3-1 on aggregate after a 1-0 victory in the first leg last week at Maracana Stadium.
In Sao Paulo, Santos defeated Palmeiras 4-2 in a penalty shootout to win their fourth regional trophy in the last six years, and in northeastern Brazil, violence erupted after Fortaleza clinched the Ceara state championship. Dozens of fans from the rival clubs attacked each other with broken chairs, billboards and pieces of wood after Fortaleza supporters ran onto the field to celebrate the win at the Castelao, one of the stadiums that hosted World Cup matches last year.
Riot police eventually restored order by firing rubber bullets and stun bombs to force the crowd back into the stands. There were no reports of serious injuries. The matches were a few of many state finals across Brazil on Sunday. Regional championships are played in the first few months of the season, with the Brazilian league beginning next week and ending in December. Rafael Silva opened the scoring late in the first half for Vasco da Gama in front of nearly 60,000 fans at the Maracana. Botafogo equalized through Diego Jardel in the 75th before Gilberto sealed Vasco's victory with a shot from inside the area. Vasco's first-leg win also came with an injury-time goal.
Vasco, which played in the second division of the Brazilian league last season, hadn't won the traditional regional tournament since 2003. Botafogo last lifted the state trophy in 2013. Santos were playing in its seventh straight final in Sao Paulo, while Palmeiras, the team made famous by Pele in the 1960s, were trying to win the regional tournament for the first time since 2008. Palmeiras won 2-1 in regulation to offset the 1-0 first-leg loss at home last week, but missed two penalties in the shootout to lose the championship at Vila Belmiro Stadium in Santos. "Not everybody believed in us but we came through," said the 31-year-old Robinho, who is playing for Santos on a loan from AC Milan.
A starter for Brazil in the 2010 World Cup, Robinho did not play in the first leg because of an injury. He set up defender David Braz for Santos' first goal in the 30th, and striker Ricardo Oliveira, voted the tournament's most valuable player, added the second in the 44th. Lucas pulled one back for Palmeiras after a pass by Chilean playmaker Jorge Valdivia, who also missed the first leg because of an injury. Palmeiras, which had eliminated rival Corinthians on penalties in the semifinals, had an 87th-minute goal disallowed for offside. Both teams had players sent off just before halftime, and Palmeiras defender Victor Ramos was red-carded in the 75th minute for a hard foul.
In the Rio Grande do Sul state championship, Internacional defeated Luiz Felipe Scolari's Gremio 2-1 to clinch its fifth-straight state title. After the match, upset Gremio fans threw broken chairs at rival supporters at Beira-Rio Stadium, which also hosted World Cup matches last year. In Minas Gerais, Atletico Mineiro defeated Caldense 2-1 to secure the title. Jo, Brazil's reserve striker in last year's World Cup, scored for the first time in more than a year. Boca Juniors scored twice in the final six minutes to beat River Plate 2-0 in an enthralling Argentine "superclasico" and open a three-point lead in the championship standings on Sunday. Teenage striker Cristian Pavon broke the deadlock in the 84th minute, tucking a shot from the left between goalkeeper Marcelo Barovero and the post.
Two minutes later, fellow substitute Pablo Perez made sure of the victory when he scored from the rebound after Barovero had parried midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro's effort. "That's the loveliest thing that's happened to me since I got to Boca," the 19-year-old Pavon told Futbol Para Todos, while Boca coach Rodolfo Arruabarrena praised the teenager's initiative. "Cristian's goal came from the opposite wing to which I'd asked him to play, that's the player's intelligence," he told reporters. Boca have 27 points from 11 matches, three points more than River and San Lorenzo, who beat Velez Sarsfield 1-0 on Saturday. Belgrano had the chance to go second but were held 1-1 at Union in Santa Fe and remain fourth with 23 points.
Sunday's "superclasico" league clash was an hors d'oeuvre to the meeting of the bitter rivals in the last 16 of the South American Libertadores Cup, which begins with the first leg at River on Thursday.
River had their chances too and striker Rodrigo Mora forced goalkeeper Agustin Orion into a reflex save to tip over his looping volley from the right edge of the box early in the second half. Mora also hit the angle of post and bar with another effort from the left on the hour mark as River took the game to Boca after the interval. The match began with Boca pushing River into their own half and forcing the visitors to play on the counter-attack, not their preferred game.
Boca's Dani Osvaldo hit the bar with a volley in the 10th minute and fellow striker Andres Chavez narrowly missed the target on the half hour after the Italy striker stepped over Federico Carizzo's right cross. At that point River coach Marcelo Gallardo could be heard screaming at his players: "Lets play a bit!"
Two minutes later, River almost took the lead with their best move of the first half when winger Carlos Sanchez met striker Teo Gutierrez's square pass with the outside of his right foot only to see the ball come back off the bar. "In three minutes we lost a match we had under control " They hadn't been creating danger," Gallardo added.
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