This is the ten year anniversary your missus won’t be angry at you for forgetting.
On this day in 2005 Nautico hosted Gremio in a Brazilian Serie B play-off.
The game has gone down in folklore in Brazil with the press brilliantly naming it ‘Battle of the Afflicted’.
So why is it so famous?
First of all the visiting team had to be escorted to the away dressing room by police and kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes because both sets of fans were losing their marbles in the stands.
Needless to say the atmosphere and the high stakes produced a tense game with opposing players squaring up to each other at regular intervals.
Nautico’s Bruno Carvalho missed a penalty in the first half as Gremio tried to hold on to a 0-0 scoreline under heavy pressure.
The visitors brought on Lucas Leiva at the break. He wouldn’t be the last player with Premier League history to play a part…
Ten minutes after half-time Gremio’s Alejandro Escalona received a red card for deliberate handball.
At 71 minutes it properly kicked off.
Gremio lost another man when Eduardo Nunes was also dismissed for handball and Nautico were awarded a second penalty.
The Gremio players were outraged by the decision. They surrounded the referee, pushing and intimidating him while fans poured into the pitch.
Two more Gremio players were eventually sent off.
For those keeping count, Gremio are down to seven men.
The game restarted with the penalty some twenty minutes after riot police had removed the hundreds of fans from the pitch.
Ademar Junior took the penalty this time but Galatto saved with his feet prompting more chaos in the stands.
A minute later Nautico’s Batata committed a cynical professional foul to stop a counterattack and was given his marching orders.
So that’s ten men against seven now. Keep up.
The resulting free-kick was taken quickly and the seven men of Gremio took the lead in the 106th minute!
Who scored it?
It was only bloody Anderson wasn’t it? 17-years-old he was, sign him up, Fergie.
Gremio somehow held on for the rest of the game using this formation…
