At one point, Internacional seemed the only team capable of stopping Palmeiras from grabbing the title. Just arriving from Série B, Internacional didn’t have many expectations for this 2018 season. Their squad was considered short, but on the other hand there weren’t any continental matches to be played, and Colorados benefited also from an early drop from Brazilian Cup still in March, right after the start of League season. That had a big positive impact on Internacional’s season, as the exciting young coach Odair Hellmann was able to keep the same lineup for several weeks in a row.
Around the round 24, Internacional was topping the table, but October was a hard month for Colorados. Only one victory in four games took them out of the top of the table, eventually for good. Some injuries and fatigue exposed the team’s shortness in options. The trio in midfield was simply irreplaceable; every time Edenilson, Patrick or Dourado got injured or suspended, the team suffered. A double defeat, near the end, to Botafogo and Atlético Mineiro in the same week took them out of the title race for good.
It was still a highly positive season for Gaúchos, as there was never such a good league performance in Série from a newly promoted team, before. It’s hard to imagine today that Internacional was playing in Série B one year ago. The likes Victor Cuesta, Rodrigo Dourado, Nico Lopez and Leandro Damião are too good to imagine playing in lower ranks, and they proved to be dominant even in a top flight scenario, in 2018, having been joined by the returning Edenilson and Moledo as well as the former Sport Recife midfielder Patrick to form a strong eleven that unfortunately didn’t have a proper second line of options on the reserves’ bench.
