Palmeiras opened the brighter but went behind on the fifth minute after good pressure from the home side.
Batista’s shot from outside the area was deflected off Henrique and slotted home past the keeper to give the home side an unlikely lead.
The first sending off came when Rivaldo was sent off for a second bookable offence with a late challenge and this prompted Palmeiras manager Luis Felipe Scolari to bring on Gerley.
Despite having a man less, Palmeiras were at times the better team with Avai struggling to cope with their pace up front and organsied defence.
They deservedly equalised four minutes before half-time when Chico headed in Marcos Assencao’s cross to give Palmeiras a goal which would eventually share the spoils.
The controversy wasn’t to end there though with two more sendings off in the match. The away side went down to nine men when substitute Gerley went in violently on defender Dirceu.
Scolari immediately shifted Luan over to the left side and it seemed to work as once again, Avai weren’t able to make their extra man count.
Instead of trying to score the winner, Avai went about trying to even up the players on the pitch. Rafael Coelho, who came on as a substitute to try and win the match, hit Kleber from behind and was rightly shown a straight red.
In the last twenty minutes, both teams could have won the game with the away side looking the more likely to do that. But the points were shared in a match which won’t be remembered for the quality of football, but the violence surrounding it.
