1978 Campeonato Paulista

The 1978 Campeonato Paulista da Divisão Especial de Futebol Profissional^[1] was the 77th season of São Paulo's top professional football league. Santos won the championship by the 14th time. Juary from Santos was the top scorer with 29 goals. Paulista and Portuguesa Santista were relegated.^[2]

Campeonato Paulista – Série A1

Season	1978
Champions	Santos
Relegated	Paulista Portuguesa Santista
Copa Brasil	Francana São Bento Comercial XV de Jaú XV de Piracicaba
Matches played	444
Goals scored	978 (2.2 per match)
Top goalscorer	Juary (Santos) – 29 goals
Biggest home win	Santos 5-0 Comercial (August 30, 1978) São Bento 5-0 Comercial (February 18, 1979)
Biggest away win	Francana 0-4 Corinthians (March 25, 1979) Portuguesa 0-4 São Paulo (May 26, 1979)
Highest scoring	Juventus 6-2 Portuguesa Santista (October 10, 1978) Palmeiras 5-3 Portuguesa (October 29, 1978) Marília 4-4 Ponte Preta (February 24, 1979)
← 1977 1979 →

Championship

The first phase of the championship was divided into two rounds, in which the twenty teams of the championship were divided into four groups of five teams, with each team playing once against all other teams, and the two best teams of each group passing to the Quarterfinals. The finalists of each round qualified to the Third round, along with the four best teams in the aggregate table, and the two teams with the best revenue among the eliminated.^[3] the team with the fewest points out of all the twenty was relegated, while the team with the second-fewest points would dispute a playoff against the runner-up of the Second level. ^[2][1]

In the Third round, the ten remaining teams would be divided into two groups of five, each team playing once against the teams of its own group and the other group, and the two best teams of each group qualifying to the Semifinals.

First round

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Ponte Preta	19	8	8	3	17	10	+7	24	Qualified
2	Santos	19	7	9	3	17	15	+2	23
3	Paulista	19	4	9	6	12	15	−3	17
4	Noroeste	19	6	4	9	12	22	−10	16
5	Portuguesa Santista	19	2	3	14	11	34	−23	7

Updated to match(es) played on November 8, 1978. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	São Paulo	19	12	4	3	18	12	+6	28	Qualified
2	Portuguesa	19	6	7	6	27	28	−1	19
3	Juventus	19	7	3	9	32	33	−1	17
4	Francana	19	5	7	7	19	17	+2	17
5	XV de Piracicaba	19	4	8	7	15	19	−4	16

Updated to match(es) played on November 8, 1978. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Guarani	19	11	6	2	33	14	+19	28	Qualified
2	Corinthians	19	9	8	2	24	17	+7	26
3	Comercial	19	8	5	6	23	22	+1	21
4	São Bento	19	6	5	8	14	23	−9	17
5	Marília	19	5	5	9	23	27	−4	15

Updated to match(es) played on November 8, 1978. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Palmeiras	19	9	6	4	26	15	+11	24	Qualified
2	XV de Jaú	19	7	6	6	22	21	+1	20
3	Botafogo	19	5	9	5	16	13	+3	19
4	América	19	6	4	9	18	20	−2	16
5	Ferroviária	19	1	8	10	12	24	−12	10

Updated to match(es) played on November 8, 1978. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Quarterfinals

Team 1	Score	Team 2
São Paulo	0–0[4]	Santos
Guarani	1–1[5]	XV de Jaú
Palmeiras	0–3	Corinthians
Ponte Preta	1–0	Portuguesa

Semifinals

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Corinthians	3–2 (a.e.t)	Guarani
Santos	1–0	Ponte Preta

Finals

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Corinthians	1–0	Santos

Second round

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Guarani	19	7	8	4	24	16	+8	22	Qualified
2	Juventus	19	8	5	6	33	27	+6	21
3	Portuguesa Santista	19	8	5	6	13	14	−1	21
4	Palmeiras	19	8	4	7	23	18	+5	20
5	Paulista	19	3	8	8	10	20	−10	14

Updated to match(es) played on April 27, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Corinthians	19	7	8	4	25	20	+5	22	Qualified
2	Botafogo	19	7	8	4	23	19	+4	22
3	Comercial	19	5	7	7	10	19	−9	17
4	Noroeste	19	4	7	8	13	22	−9	15
5	América	19	3	9	7	19	29	−10	15

Updated to match(es) played on April 27, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Ponte Preta	19	12	5	2	39	16	+23	29	Qualified
2	Francana	19	5	9	5	22	27	−5	19
3	São Paulo	19	6	4	9	24	27	−3	16
4	Marília	19	4	8	7	22	27	−5	16
5	São Bento	19	5	4	10	23	30	−7	14

Updated to match(es) played on April 27, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Santos	19	10	4	5	25	15	+10	24	Qualified
2	Ferroviária	19	7	8	4	18	14	+4	22
3	XV de Piracicaba	19	6	8	5	16	16	0	20
4	XV de Jaú	19	6	4	9	18	19	−1	16
5	Portuguesa	19	5	5	9	19	24	−5	15

Updated to match(es) played on April 27, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Quarterfinals

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Ponte Preta	3–0	Ferroviária
Santos	2–1	Francana
Guarani	2–1	Botafogo
Corinthians	0–1 (a.e.t)	Juventus

Semifinals

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Santos	0–1 (a.e.t)	Ponte Preta
Juventus	0–2	Guarani

Finals

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Ponte Preta	1–1 (a.e.t)[6]	Guarani

Aggregate table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Ponte Preta	38	20	13	5	56	26	+30	53	Qualified as stage finalists
2	Guarani	38	18	14	6	57	30	+27	50
3	Corinthians	38	16	16	6	49	37	+12	48
4	Santos	38	17	13	8	52	30	+22	47
5	São Paulo	38	18	8	12	42	39	+3	44	Qualified
6	Palmeiras	38	17	10	11	49	33	+16	44
7	Botafogo	38	12	17	9	39	32	+7	41
8	Juventus	38	15	8	15	65	60	+5	38
9	Comercial	38	13	12	13	33	41	−8	38
10	XV de Jaú	38	13	10	15	40	40	0	36
11	Francana	38	10	16	12	41	44	−3	36	Qualified due to revenue
12	XV de Piracicaba	38	10	16	12	32	48	−16	36
13	Portuguesa	38	11	12	15	46	52	−6	34	Qualified due to revenue
14	Ferroviária	38	8	16	14	30	38	−8	32
15	São Bento	38	11	10	17	39	53	−14	32
16	Noroeste	38	10	11	17	25	44	−19	31
17	Marília	38	9	13	16	45	54	−9	31
18	América	38	9	13	16	27	49	−22	31
19	Paulista	38	6	18	14	22	36	−14	30	Relegation Playoffs
20	Portuguesa Santista	38	10	8	20	24	48	−24	28	Relegated

Updated to match(es) played on April 27, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Relegation Playoffs

Team 1	Series	Team 2	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3
Velo Clube	5–1	Paulista	3–1	0–0	1–0

Third round

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Guarani	9	5	3	1	19	7	+12	13	Qualified as stage finalists
2	São Paulo	9	4	5	0	14	6	+8	13
3	Corinthians	9	5	2	2	16	11	+5	12
4	Francana	9	1	3	5	9	14	−5	5
5	Botafogo	9	1	0	8	7	24	−17	2

Updated to match(es) played on June 14, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Palmeiras	9	6	2	1	17	6	+11	14	Qualified as stage finalists
2	Santos	9	5	0	4	18	9	+9	10
3	Ponte Preta	9	4	2	3	11	10	+1	10
4	Juventus	9	3	3	3	11	16	−5	9
5	Portuguesa	9	0	2	7	3	22	−19	2

Updated to match(es) played on June 14, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Semifinals

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Santos	3–1	Guarani
Palmeiras	0–1 (a.e.t)	São Paulo

Finals

Team 1	Series	Team 2	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3
São Paulo	3–3[7]	Santos	1–2	1–1	2-0

Top Scores

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Juary	Santos	29
2	Ataliba	Juventus	25
3	Jorge Mendonça	Palmeiras	24
4	Sócrates	Corinthians	20
5	João Paulo	Santos	16