In the first semi-final, Ceará take on Coritiba of Paraná. Last season was Ceará’s first back in the Brasileirão since 1993, and now they are looking to build on that success with a first ever Copa victory for the club. They reached the final in 1994, but lost to Grêmio.
They claimed an impressive win against Ronaldinho’s Flamengo in the last round, and have also knocked out Prudente, Brasiliense and Cuiabá in this year’s campaign. They are unbeaten in all seven of their Copa games in 2010. Their manager, Vagner Mancini, was in charge of the Paulista side that won the competition in 2005.
Coritiba also recently returned to the top division, after winning promotion last year. They are currently enjoying a run of 24 consecutive wins, which is a national record. This semi-final appearance matches their best performance in the competition, having reached the same stage in 1991, 2001 and 2009.
They defeated Ypiranga, Atletico Goianiense and Caxias before thrashing Palmeiras 6-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals. They have been in fine goalscoring form at home in the tournament, with 15 goals in four matches at the Estadio Couto Pereira.
The second tie sees Rio de Janeiro’s Vasco de Gama face Avaí from Santa Catarina. Vasco reached the final once, losing to Flamengo. They have enjoyed some measure of success in the competition in comparison to the others, reaching the quarter-finals ten times since it began in 1989.
Vasco scraped through the last round with an away goals victory over Atletico Paranaense, after having also dispatched Náutico, ABC and Comercial. Their star man is former Lyon player and free-kick expert Juninho Pernambucano, and the squad also contains former Seleção members Jorge Felipe and Eduardo Costa.
Avaí are this year’s surprise package, and have never even come close to getting this far in the Copa before. They have caused some big shocks so far, knocking out Sao Paulo and Botafogo in the last two rounds. They also beat Ipatinga and Vilhena.
They are coached by Paulo Silas, who made 34 appearances for Brazil between 1986 and 1992, and had playing spells at Sporting Lisbon, Sampdoria and San Lorenzo among others. Avaí may be the outsiders at this point, but they have already shown they are capable of an upset.
The first legs of the semi-finals take place in the early hours of tomorrow (UK time), with the second legs a week later.
