Saved by the gong. A lot of teams were involved in the relegation fight, this year, but on that final round, it was basically all between Sport Recife and Chapecoense, even if a couple of others teams still not completely saved. Playing against São Paulo in the final round was not a promising premise for that decisive Sunday, and it got worse when Sport Recife was winning in the North part of the country. However, a goal from Leandro Pereira in the final third of the match gave Chape a ticket to 2019 top flight edition and a big night of celebration.
It took three coaches for Chapecoense to finally find their best shape. Gilson Kleina led the team for the first 17 rounds, having left Chape under the red line after only three wins in that period. Guto Ferreira then came back to a club he managed in 2015-16. After a great start (home win over Corinthians), Chape seemed to be playing even worse, which resulted in a sequence of 5 games with only one point collected. From September to mid-October, the club oscillated between from some good wins like the ones against Internacional and Atlético Mineiro, and some very bad defeats. The last of which was an unforgivable home loss to the struggling Vitória that eventually cost Guto’s place. The next man was relegation specialist Claudinei Oliveira, whose first move was to bring star striker Wellington Paulista (WP9) back to the team after he was internally suspended while Guto Ferreira was in charge. It was with Claudinei on the dugout and WP9 forming a great attacking duo with Leandro Pereira that Chapecoense had their best moment on the season: 13 points in the last 9 rounds was what made the difference for Chape, in the end.
Besides the attacking prowess of Leandro Pereira and WP9 (particularly when playing together), Chape also benefitted from the return of Márcio Araújo in that final moment of the season. The former Flamengo midfielder formed a solid duo with Elicarlos, but the two got into relatively long injuries, having only returned for the decisive final rounds. Goalkeeper Jandrei had a good season, as well, despite a couple of memorable mistakes (one of them in cup), confirming the excellent form he showed in the beginning of the year in Santa Catarina State championship.
