Santos beat Parana

Santos:

A bizarre goalkeeping blunder from Parana's Flavio gifted Santos a 1-0 win at home in the Brazilian Championship (Brasileiro) on Saturday. Flavio allowed a Rodrigo Tabata free-kick bounce over his attempted save and into the net a minute before half time and it proved to be the only goal of the game. Santos move up to third place in the table with Sunday's matches still to come, while Parana drop to sixth and their chances of qualifying for next year's Copa Libertadores are now receding. Both sides are aiming a place in next season's Copa Libertadores and after only six minutes Santos, in fourth place in the table, created the first goal scoring opportunity - Cleber Santana testing the reflexes of Parana goalkeeper Flavio. Parana, fifth, gave as good as they got in the opening period but for Santos defender Pierre's timely intervention, Leandro would have opened the scoring for the visitors nine minutes later. Santos striker Reinaldo went close again six minutes before then interval - his shot deflecting off a defender and bouncing wide with Flavio stranded at the wrong side of his goal. It seemed the two sides would go into the interval on level terms - despite Adriano's red card in the 37th minute leaving Santos a man short - but with a minute to go, Flavio somehow misjudged a Rodrigo Tabata free-kick and the ball bounced over his flailing arms and into the net. Reinaldo tried to claim the goal, but he got nowhere near it - neither, it must be said, did Flavio. Tightened defence Santos tightened up their defence after the break and it had the effect of opening things up at the other end and on more than one occasion, Flavio was called upon to atone for his earlier mistake. When Parana did create an opening, luck was against them - Leandro thwarted by a combination of Fabio Costa and Kleber from a corner with 12 minutes left. There was still time for Reinaldo to make a complete hash of the best chance of the game in the 84th minute when, with just Flavio to beat, he rolled his shot wide. Santos coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo could hardly believe it but his side ran out one-nil winners nonetheless - three more points lifting Santos up to third place in the table with Sunday's matches still to come. (AP)