Vasco da Gama thrashed Neymar’s Santos 6-0 on Sunday in the twentieth round of the Brazilian Championship at the Morumbis stadium in São Paulo, in front of an astonished crowd that watched most of the second half with their backs to their team.
The image in which Vasco’s coach, former Brazil coach Fernando Diniz, embraces an inconsolable Neymar at the end of the match, who left the field in tears and without making any statements, sums up the result of a new humiliation suffered by the team in which Pelé was immortalized.
Vasco da Gama beats Santos of Brazil
Hein, cousin 🧐!
Dá-lhe, PH! 👏💢
📸: Matheus Lima | #VascoDaGama pic.twitter.com/SiPE9HhAwL
– Vasco da Gama (@VascodaGama) August 18, 2025
The Rio de Janeiro team won with two goals from international Philippe Coutinho and others from Lucas Piton, Rayan, David and Tché y Tché. Five of the goals were scored in the first minutes of the second half and three of them were considered great goals.
It was Vasco’s biggest drubbing of Santos in 98 years and the biggest thrashing suffered as hosts in Brazilian Championship games. Santos had never lost by more than four goals in a home match.
Despite being two of Brazil’s most traditional clubs and several times national champions, Sunday’s match pitted two teams trying to escape from the bottom four in the league standings, which are punished by relegation.
The victory allowed Vasco to move up to sixteenth place, with 19 points, and temporarily leave the group of threatened teams, while the defeat left Santos in fifteenth place, with 21 points and a game in hand, in the sights of their immediate pursuers.
Neymar played the entire game
Buzzy
Neymar returned to play all 90 minutes, as he has done in the last six matches for Santos.
This was a demonstration that he has overcome the injuries and discomfort that affected his performance, but he was a shadow of his former idol of the Brazilian national team.
With the exception of an eye-catching back-heel assist for a goal by Guilherme that was disallowed against Santos in the last minutes of the match for offside and a few passes, Pelé’s successor went almost unnoticed on the pitch.
Neymar had to witness the brilliance of Philippe Coutinho, the best on the pitch.
Neymar is trying to show his potential as Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti prepares the squad for the Canarinha’s last two World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Bolivia.
The Santos defeat was the biggest defeat suffered by Neymar in his career.
The former Barcelona and PSG player had never lost a match by six goals before.
And many of the 53,000 people attending the game at the Morumbis on Sunday had come to the match hoping to see a Neymar display, but ended up leaving the stadium before the end of the match or turning their backs on their team.
