GRÊMIO 2x0 Santos - Ida Semifinal Libertadores 2007 - Rádio Gaúcha (Narração Pedro Ernesto Denardin)

The video "Grêmio 2 x 0 Santos - Libertadores 2007 - 10 Min of Pressure" shows how Grêmio built their victory in their Old Home, the Olímpico Monumental stadium, which was the first step they took towards the grand final of the competition, even though less than 2 years before this match, the team was humiliatingly in the 2005 Série B with very few financial resources. I use the same excerpt from the video, but with a stupendous and little-known narration of this match, made by the narrator Pedro Ernesto Denardin, from Rádio Gaúcha. At 32 minutes of the first half, Ávalos, Santos' defender, grabs Diego Souza inside the area and the Argentine referee Sérgio Pezzotta awards a penalty to Grêmio. Grêmio's captain Tcheco faces the experienced and excellent Santos goalkeeper Fábio Costa, displaces the goalkeeper with all his technical quality and converts the penalty with precision. Grêmio 1-0. Only two and a half minutes passed between the converted penalty and an unforgivable error by Adaílton, the other Santos defender, who got into trouble, losing the ball in defense to the young Carlos Eduardo, a standout revelation for Grêmio that year, who found himself one-on-one with goalkeeper Fábio Costa and calmly slotted the ball past him. Grêmio 2-0. From then on, Grêmio continued to press for a little while longer, with Fábio Costa making a miraculous save from a close-range shot by Tcheco. After that play, the game became end-to-end, with both teams having good chances to score, but the score remained unchanged. With this score, Grêmio could lose by any one-goal margin to Santos at Vila Belmiro and still reach the grand final. There, Grêmio managed to open the scoring with a fantastic goal by Diego Souza. With a 0-1 score in their favor, Grêmio could even lose 3-1 and still qualify, since at the time away goals counted as a tiebreaker. And that's what happened. Santos applied a lot of pressure, managed a 3-1 comeback victory, but it wasn't enough for the team from the Baixada Santista to prevent Grêmio from qualifying, reaching their fourth Libertadores final in their more than century-long history. Unfortunately, as everyone knows, Grêmio faced the last gigantic Boca Juniors squad, which was technically far superior to Grêmio's, but in terms of grit, the two teams were evenly matched (In fact, Grêmio's entire journey to the final was based on grit and knowing how to use the home advantage). With two defeats in the final, 3-0 at La Bombonera and 2-0 at the Olímpico Stadium, Grêmio finished as runner-up in the 2007 Copa Libertadores. I would say that, looking only at the final itself, it was truly shameful. But if you analyze the whole picture and consider everything Grêmio experienced from its centenary year in 2003 until that moment of finishing as runner-up, the fans had the right to be proud of the effort and fighting spirit the team demonstrated to get so far, even though everyone knew the team's potential wasn't that high, including Grêmio's own coach at the time, Mano Menezes, who said in interviews that even he didn't know how far the team could go, given that it had already exceeded all expectations. Match played on 05/30/2007. Narration: Pedro Ernesto Denardin Commentary: Ruy Carlos Ostermann Referee Commentary: Henrique Marques Reporting: Fabiano Baldasso, Sérgio Boaz, Eduardo Gabardo, André Silva and Luciano Périco On-site reporting: Cléber Grabauska. All rights reserved to Grupo Globo and Grupo RBS.