Matheus Pereira returns from suspension and settles it at the Couto Pereira
Cruzeiro lost the round they spent without Matheus Pereira and Gerson. With both back, one pass between them beat Coritiba 1-0 and lifted Artur Jorge’s side to seventh.
Jul 31, 2026
Cruzeiro spent a week finding out what they look like without Matheus Pereira and Gerson. They got both back at the Couto Pereira on Thursday night, and the pair combined for the only goal of a 1-0 win at Coritiba that moved Artur Jorge’s side up to seventh in the Brasileirão.
One pass, one finish, three points
The goal came in the 66th minute. Gerson found Matheus Pereira, and Cruzeiro’s playmaker did the rest. It was the only clear moment of quality in a match that Coritiba shaded on volume, and it settled a fixture that had been drifting toward the sort of goalless draw both sides could have predicted at kick-off.
Both had missed the previous round through suspension after picking up third yellow cards, and Cruzeiro lost that game at home to Botafogo. That is a sample of one game, so read it lightly, but the shape of it was familiar enough: this team’s ideas run through those two, and without them the passing slows down and the final third goes quiet.
Coritiba had the chances and nothing to show
The hosts finished with 11 shots to Cruzeiro’s six, four on target to two, which is not the shape of a night a team should lose. Coritiba’s Bruno Melo had two openings in the first half and took neither. Once the goal went in the hosts pushed harder and got no closer, and the night ended with Pedro Luccas having made three saves in defeat while Otávio Costa needed two for a clean sheet.
Cruzeiro were not much better with what they created. Felipe Morais missed the clearest of the lot, arriving on a rebound in front of goal and putting it wide. Kaio Jorge led the line without much service. On another night this is a 1-1 draw and nobody talks about it again.
Seventh, and the table is tightening
The win puts Cruzeiro on 30 points in seventh. Coritiba stay 11th on 27, which for now is the last place that carries a Copa Sudamericana spot, and that is the real context for a defeat like this one. Three points separate seventh from 11th, which is the whole story of this part of the table: nobody in it is pulling clear, and a single result reorders the lot of them.
Cruzeiro’s reward is a Copa do Brasil round-of-16 tie with Chapecoense next, which will tell them more about their squad depth than a single goal at the Couto Pereira does. Coritiba have a longer wait for their next league game, and a week to work out how a performance like that one produced nothing.