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Botafogo's chances of avoiding one of the worst collapses in a league title race the sport has ever seen were slashed on Sunday. On Wednesday, the embarrassment was entrenched even further.
Palmeiras captured the championship on the final matchday Wednesday night, drawing Cruzeiro 1-1 and leaving nothing to chance. Botafogo lost 1-3 to Internacional. Palmeiras won their record 12th Brazilian Serie A title and Botafogo culminated their season in unprecedented fashion.
Botafogo's Brasileiro bottle job
Botafogo had started the season winning 15 of their first 19 games. They had a 14-point lead at the top of the table. They finished the season having only won three of their last 17 games and failing to win a single one of their final 11.
Within that spell of ineptitude came a myriad of brutal, heartbreaking draws and losses, one of which came against Palmeiras at the start of November. Botafogo took a 3-0 lead into halftime and a 3-1 lead into the 84th minute. They lost 3-4, with Palmeiras scoring a 99th minute winner.
Everything went wrong for Botafogo over the second half of the season. They had dreams, hopes and expectations of winning the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A for the first time since 1995. Instead, they ended up in 5th place and left a stain on the club that will not soon go away in Brazil.