Before the end of the first half, Ricardo attacked from the left side, dribbling past two Nationals players in succession and knocking the ball across to teenager Elton. Elton took the ball and gave it a gentle push, Fabiano understood it, ran diagonally, and finished the shot after receiving the ball smoothly, pulling a goal back for Sao Paulo.

Sao Paulo's morale was higher at the start of the second half, but the Nacional gave them the first blow: Peralta broke down the flank and crossed low, and midfielder Morales followed up to make it 3-1.

At this time, Rojas decisively made substitutions, replacing Ricardinho and Fabiano, who lacked physical strength, and only one Licardo was left in the front court.

The substitution worked wonders, with the youngsters on the pitch doing well.

First, Ricardo assisted Tardelli to score, and soon Rico crossed from the side, and Licardo scored with a header to rewrite the score to 3:3.

In the final 10 minutes of the game, both sides were close to running out of energy, but instead played a few minutes of good balls each, Peralta scored from distance to give the Nacional a lead again, and in the 86th minute, Ricardo juggled past the Nacional three men and played a clever pass to the front of goal to help Elton score.

In the end, the two sides fought to a 4-4 draw, which was a rare high score. One can imagine how bad the form of the backfield players in this game is in Sao Paulo.

After a two-day hiatus, São Paulo sat at home and welcomed the second opponent of the league, Guarani. Against the underdogs Guarani, Sao Paulo was full of fatigue, with a porous defence and a lackluster attack. In the end, the two sides played to a 1-1 draw, and Sao Paulo was narrowly drawn by captain Cheney from a penalty.

After this match, Ricardo and his teammates Fabiano, along with Ricardinho and Cheney, once again went to the Comari Manor training ground in the satellite city of Tresópolis in Rio de Janeiro to join the Brazilian national team in this edition.

In this period, the national team basically did not call up players to play in the top five leagues, and most of the 22 players came from the Brazilian domestic league, so Ricardo's Sao Paulo teammate Fabiano and others could be selected. Unfortunately, Kaka was injured and failed to wear the national team jersey this time.

It is worth mentioning that Santos' Diego and Renato have also been selected for this edition of the national team, although Robinho's first international trip will have to wait for the future.

On April 30, Brazil faced Mexico at Maracanã, and Ricardo started the game and assisted Fabiano in the 38th minute with a pick-and-roll pass.

In the second half, Brazil made a big rotation and Ricardo was substituted, ending his second international journey.

After the match, before returning to São Paulo, Pereira found Ricardo alone.

"During this time, take care of your body and don't get hurt. Keep up the form and I want to see you keep scoring goals. ”

Ricardo smiled knowingly: "Sir, do I have a chance to go to the Confederations Cup?" ”

Pereira nodded slightly: "There is a chance." ”

Ricardo's confidence was immediately boosted.

This year's Confederations Cup will be held in France in June. Brazil has always cared little about the Confederations Cup, except for the Confederations Cup in '97, when the main players were called up in preparation for the World Cup, and it is generally a team of fringe players to compete in the Confederations Cup.

Ricardo felt the need to compete for a place in the main force in this tournament. Ronaldo certainly won't come. And Ricardo was reluctant to give anyone but Ronaldo a substitute.

And if you want to play in the main ...... In addition to his performances at the training camp, his performances in the Copa Libertadores and the league are also crucial.

But the next league game didn't give him much of a chance to perform. Not only him, but Fabiano and Ricardinho were also on the bench, and Rojas had to stay in the second leg of the quarter-finals of the Copa Libertadores, which resulted in Sao Paulo, who had rotated most of the main players, losing 0-2 away to Coritiba.

With only four points from one win, one draw and one defeat in the league, such an unsatisfactory start has led to a lot of criticism from the sports media in São Paulo. However, the media did not say anything too much, they were all holding back, waiting for Sao Paulo to be out of the Copa Libertadores before they could settle the score.

But Rojas didn't let them get their wish, São Paulo didn't let them, Ricardo didn't let them.

On May 7, Sao Paulo, who were in Molumbi, launched an onslaught from the first minute of the opening game, they did not accept a loss, they did not accept a draw, they only accepted victory!

In the first half, Ricardo crossed and Rico contributed to help Sao Paulo lead 2-1.

In the second half, the situation changed abruptly, and the national team pulled a goal back by Da Valdés, and the score became a 2:2 draw.

If this score is maintained until the end, the aggregate score of the two sides is 6:6, and the penalty shootout will be directly played. There is no extra time in the Copa Libertadores, and there is no rule for more away goals, and the two sides who draw must exchange penalties.

Just when Rojas was at a loss, Ricardo stepped up again. It was injury time, Ricardinho took a free-kick in front, and the National defender raised his leg to clear the ball, but he made a mistake and kicked off his own team.

Ricardo reacted quickly, with his back to goal, leaning the defender of the Nationals, gently picking the ball up, then jumping up and shooting with a barb that sent the ball into the net.

With this goal, Sao Paulo eliminated the strong opponent of the national team with an aggregate score of 7:6 and entered the last eight.

This time, a total of four Brazilian clubs participated in the group stage of the round of 32 of the Copa Libertadores, in addition to São Paulo, Corinthians, San Caetano and Gremio.

All four teams made it through the group, but in the quarter-finals Corinthians lost to River Plate and San Caetano lost to Boca 3-4 on aggregate, leaving Sao Paulo and Gremio to reach the last eight, representing the last face of Brazilian football in the top club competition in South America.

In addition to the two Brazilian teams, there are two Argentine teams River Plate and Boca, two Colombian teams América de Cali and Independiente Medellín, as well as a Mexican team and a Chilean team.

São Paulo's next opponent will be the club Blue Cross from Mexico.

The first leg between the two sides will be played on May 21. Before that, Sao Paulo still have a few league games to play.

On the same day that São Paulo successfully entered the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores, the semi-finals of the European Champions Cup, the highest competition for European clubs, also began.

The Milan duo played the first leg, and although both legs were played at the San Siro, the first leg was played at AC Milan's home stadium.

AC Milan's strong defense was undoubtedly on display, and the defense composed of Nesta, Maldini, Costacuta and Gattuso made Ronaldo useless, and the two sides fought 0:0.

In the next leg, Inter Milan only needs to win one goal to enter the Champions League final again after 30 years.