Cruzeiro managed to claim the title back in 2013 and 2014, which gave the club a tremendous boost, but the team from Belo Horizonte failed to live up to the expectations later on. The twelfth spot in 2016 wasn't an achievement at all and Cruzeiro had to bounce back with a better 2017 campaign to satisfy the fans again. Decent was the word to describe Cruzeiro's season, but that was already enough for Mano Menezes's men to claim a top five spot.
Cruzeiro didn't score that many goals (47), but they only conceded 39 goals as well. Menezes's squad just wasn't good enough to keep up with teams like Corinthians, Gremio, Santos and Palmeiras, but this club claimed the 'best of the rest' title after 38 matches, which seemed like the maximum result for this outfit to be honest. This finishing spot did earn them a ticket for the Copa Libertadores next year, which was one of the main missions. Cruzeiro's season was decent as mentioned before, but they did show their best potential in the Copa do Brasil to say the least. The final against Flamengo was a tough one, but Cruzeiro did claim the trophy eventually after a spectacular penalty shoot-out. The season was quite satisfying at the end of the day as Cruzeiro closed the gap with the top five again and this club will now look for a way to perform even better in 2018.
