Sport Recife produced a surprising, nerve-wracking and frustrating season for the fans. Manager Ney Franco got sacked not long after the start of the new campaign and Vanderlei Luxemburgo did push the performances to a higher level, which resulted in a satisfying first half of the campaign, but Sport Recife somehow headed into the wrong direction later on. The quarter-final against Junior Barranquilla in the Copa Sudamericana resulted in a disappointing defeat and the pressure almost became unbearable in the Serie A when Sport Recife failed to deliver week after week. A streak of eighteen matches that only contained one victory saw Sport Recife enter the bottom four and the club seemed dead and buried at that point to be honest.
The revival came near the very end and it was in fact just in time to prevent the disastrous drop to the Serie B, a quite surprising end of the season as Sport Recife showed terrible form for months, but the struggling outfit bounced back with an impressive response. The last three matches of the season against Bahia (1-0), Fluminense (1-2) and Corinthians (1-0) earned Luxemburgo's men nine crucial points, which was just enough to create a two point gap with the relegation zone. The fans will be happy with the fact that Sport Recife prevented the disaster, but the overall campaign just wasn't something to be proud of.
