Last year’s runners-up Cruzeiro are struggling this season in 15th place in the league, and it promised to get even harder when the in-form Vasco da Gama arrived.
Cruzeiro could have made the perfect start when Montillo almost scored when he cut inside the defence but the goalkeeper Fernando Press was equal to the effort on the 4th minute.
But Vasco grew into the match and soon you could tell who was top of the Brazilian Campeonato. They got their first goal six minutes before half-time when Diego Souza got his first of the match. After a fine move from Vasco, Souza had the ball on the edge of the area on the left, found himself a yard, and his low shot found the corner of the net.
Souza commented at half-time that they will only get stronger throughout the game, and how true this turned out to be as they doubled their lead on the 60th minute.
It was Diego Souza again who was able to tuck the ball home after a Fagner cross was poorly defended by the home side.
Cruzeiro did have chances and continued to fight until the end. However, the crisis deepened when Marquinhos Parana took Souza down as the last man and was sent off.
Vasco continued with the pressure and rounded off the game when Diego Souza grabbed his hat-trick with a header seven minutes from time. Game over.
Montillo commented at the end of the game that Cruzeiro are now in a ‘bad situation’.
Montillo told reporters: “It is a bad situation. The truth is that the year is ending soon and we have to keep working.
“I don’t really know what to say on the situation, I only talked to you out of respect. Thank god that the teams below aren’t getting many points and that we are not in the relegation zone.”
