São Paulo vs. Palmeiras highlights: Abel’s red card, Arias’s goal, and the chaos in the Choque-Rei

A Sunday classic at Morumbi is always something special, but today’s Choque-Rei will go down in history for all the wrong reasons. If you missed the live broadcast or want to relive every second of the chaos, here are the São Paulo vs. Palmeiras highlights. And make no mistake: in this case, the “highlights” mean the most heated moments. The 1-0 scoreline for the Big Green, sealed by that screamer from Jhon Arias, ended up being a side note compared to what went down after the final whistle.

Things were already tense from the warm-up. You could cut the tension with a knife when both teams took the pitch, knowing a spot in the Paulistão final was on the line. Palmeiras came out with the intensity of a team that didn’t want to mess around, but São Paulo, playing at home, applied the pressure from the get-go. The first half was a scrappy affair, with few clear-cut chances. Anyone tracking the classic’s numbers could see possession was split evenly, but the tactical fouls were all on the referee, who seemed to have left his whistle at home.

And in that kind of cauldron, anyone who knows the game could see it was only a matter of time before something sparked. That spark came in the 30th minute of the second half. Jhon Arias, already one of the best players on the pitch, received the ball at the edge of the box, cut inside, and blasted it into the top corner. No chance for the keeper. The entire stadium felt the blow. But no one expected that the night still had one more spectacle in store, this time starring Abel Ferreira.

The Portuguese manager, no stranger to making his feelings known, erupted over a refereeing call in stoppage time. A normal complaint in a derby, but the ref decided to play to the gallery and pulled out a red card. And that, my friends, is when the cauldron truly exploded. Abel went ballistic and had to be held back by security and his coaching staff. It was a scene straight out of an action movie. Behind the scenes, videos of the red card are already going viral, racking up millions of views. You can clearly see the manager’s fury; he even skipped the post-match press conference, from what I’ve gathered. He opted to let his assistant handle the fallout.

Meanwhile, in the locker room, the mood was one of open warfare. I’ve heard that defender João Martins, one of the team’s leaders, spoke to the press and hinted that the group is more united than ever after this. “They tried everything to throw us off our game, but we came away with the win,” he apparently said, with that knowing smile of someone who’s confident the advantage is theirs. It’s that kind of backstory that makes our football so captivating.

For those who just look at the cold, hard scoreline, it was a narrow win for Palmeiras. But for those who live and breathe this sport like we do, what remains is the certainty that the return leg at Allianz Parque is going to be an absolute firestorm. Here’s what we can expect for the second leg:

• Elimination stakes: São Paulo will have to chase the game, which will open up space for a team like Palmeiras that thrives on the counter-attack.
• Abel Ferreira in the stands? The automatic suspension for his red card means the manager will be barred from the sidelines. That could shake up the tactics for both sides.
• The referee takes centre stage: After what went down today, the Brazilian Football Confederation is going to have to assign one of their top officials to ensure the rematch doesn’t spiral out of control again.

And let’s not forget that the Brasileirão 2026 Série A BCD is just around the corner, and these derbies serve as a perfect barometer. Palmeiras showed they have the star power to make the difference, but also showed that their emotions can be a liability. São Paulo, on the other hand, desperately needs to find a way to score; playing well but failing to find the net at home in a Choque-Rei could cost them dearly in the points race.

It was an ugly, scrappy game, full of gamesmanship, but it’s precisely for that reason that we love this sport. If, from the São Paulo-Palmeiras highlights, you only saw the goal and the red card, just know you missed the 90 minutes of tension that led up to each of those moments. Now, we wait for the rematch. And you can bet on it: no one out there will forget what went down this Sunday.