Flamengo cash in the game in hand, and the Brasileirao lead is down to one point
Carrascal and Paqueta scored inside the first half as Flamengo beat Mirassol 2-0 in a fixture held over from February, closing to within a point of Palmeiras.
Sep 3, 2026
Flamengo had one game more than everyone else in the title race, and they have now cashed it in. A 2-0 win over Mirassol at the Maracana on Wednesday night leaves them a point behind Palmeiras with the fixture list level again.
A February fixture played in September
This was round four, originally set for 26 February and shelved because Flamengo were away at the Recopa Sudamericana. It sat on the calendar for six months until both clubs went out of the Copa do Brasil and a free midweek appeared. More than 60,000 turned up at the Maracana for it.
It took a quarter of an hour to settle. Gabriel Knesowitsch misplaced a pass in midfield, Flamengo broke, and Jorge Carrascal finished it. Two minutes before half time Carrascal was on the right touchline again, and this time he crossed for Lucas Paqueta to head the second.
Mirassol were not passive after the break. Fernandinho hit the post, Denilson forced a save out of Agustin Rossi, and one miss from close range was doing the rounds on Brazilian football accounts within the hour. None of it changed the score.
Carrascal keeps meeting the same opponent
Flamengo have now played Mirassol twice in 17 days and scored seven times. On 16 August they won 5-1 away in round 23, a night when Carrascal scored the first and set up one more. He has had a hand in most of what Flamengo have done to this opponent.
Paqueta’s header is worth a note of its own. He turned 29 last week, and this is his second spell at the club he left as a 21-year-old for Milan in 2019. Flamengo paid West Ham around 42 million euros for him in January on a five-year deal, a record fee for a signing in Brazilian football, and headers like that one are part of what they bought.
Palmeiras hold on by one
Palmeiras have 52 points from 25 matches, Flamengo 51 from the same number. Mirassol stay on 25 in 16th, close enough to the relegation places that Wednesday counted for them too.
The next fortnight will not be a clean run for either of the top two. Flamengo are at Remo in Belem on Sunday, then away to Independiente del Valle in the first leg of a Libertadores quarter-final on 10 September, with the return in Rio a week later. Palmeiras host LDU on 9 September and travel to Quito on the 16th. Two title contenders, both trying to win a continental knockout tie in the same three weeks, is usually where a Brazilian title race gets decided.