2015 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A

The 2015 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (officially the Brasileirão Chevrolet 2015 for sponsorship reasons) was the 59th edition of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top-level of professional football in Brazil. After winning twice in a row in the 2013 and 2014 seasons, Cruzeiro came in defending their title as the Brazilian football champions. Corinthians won the title, their sixth overall and third since the introduction of the double round-robin in 2003.

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A

Official logo.
Season	2015
Champions	Corinthians 6th Campeonato Brasileiro title
Relegated	Avaí Vasco da Gama Goiás Joinville
Copa Libertadores	Corinthians Atlético Mineiro Grêmio São Paulo Palmeiras
Matches played	380
Goals scored	897 (2.36 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ricardo Oliveira (20 goals)
Biggest home win	Internacional 6−0 Vasco (2 September)
Biggest away win	Vasco 0−4 São Paulo (8 July)
Highest scoring	Corinthians 4−3 Sport (12 August) Santos 5−2 Avaí (22 August) Corinthians 6−1 São Paulo (22 November)
Longest winning run	6 matches Atlético Mineiro Flamengo
Longest unbeaten run	17 matches Corinthians
Longest winless run	10 matches Sport
Longest losing run	6 matches Vasco
Highest attendance	67,011[1] Flamengo 0−2 Coritiba (17 September)
Lowest attendance	1,461[2] Goiás 0−1 Avaí (7 June)
Total attendance	6,671,696
Average attendance	17,557
← 2014 2016 → All statistics correct as of 7 December 2015.

Format

For the thirteenth consecutive season, the tournament was played in a double round-robin system. The team with the highest number of points at the end of the season was declared champion. The bottom four teams were relegated and will play in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série B in the 2016 season.

International qualification

The Série A served as a qualifier to CONMEBOL's 2016 Copa Libertadores. The top-three teams in the standings qualified to the Second Stage of the competition, while the fourth place in the standings qualified to the First Stage.

Teams

Despite Criciúma's relegation in the previous championship, it marked the first time four clubs from Santa Catarina took part of the same Brasileirão, at least in its current format; last time it happened, in 1979, the championship had more than 90 teams.^[3]

Stadia and locations

Atlético Mineiro

Atlético Paranaense

Avaí

Chapecoense

Coritiba

Cruzeiro

Figueirense

Goiás

Grêmio

Internacional

Joinville

Sport

São Paulo Metro Area

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro teams:
Flamengo
Fluminense
Vasco
São Paulo Metro Area teams:
Corinthians
Palmeiras
Ponte Preta
Santos
São Paulo

Location of teams in 2015 Série A

Team	Location	State	Stadium	Capacity
Atlético Mineiro	Belo Horizonte	Minas Gerais	Independência Mineirão (5 matches) Mané Garrincha (one match)	23,018 61,846 72,788
Atlético Paranaense	Curitiba	Paraná	Arena da Baixada Couto Pereira (one match)	42,372 40,502
Avaí	Florianópolis	Santa Catarina	Ressacada	17,826
Chapecoense	Chapecó	Santa Catarina	Arena Condá	20,089
Corinthians	São Paulo	São Paulo	Arena Corinthians Fonte Luminosa (one match)	47,605 21,441
Coritiba	Curitiba	Paraná	Couto Pereira	40,502
Cruzeiro	Belo Horizonte	Minas Gerais	Mineirão Arena Pantanal (one match)	61,846 44,097
Figueirense	Florianópolis	Santa Catarina	Orlando Scarpelli	19,584
Flamengo	Rio de Janeiro	Rio de Janeiro	Maracanã Mané Garrincha (2 matches) Arena das Dunas (one match)	78,838 72,788 31,375
Fluminense	Rio de Janeiro	Rio de Janeiro	Maracanã Kléber Andrade (one match)	78,838 21,252
Goiás	Goiânia	Goiás	Serra Dourada	41,574
Grêmio	Porto Alegre	Rio Grande do Sul	Arena do Grêmio	55,662
Internacional	Porto Alegre	Rio Grande do Sul	Beira-Rio	50,128
Joinville	Joinville	Santa Catarina	Arena Joinville	20,160
Palmeiras	São Paulo	São Paulo	Allianz Parque Pacaembu (2 matches)	43,713 37,730
Ponte Preta	Campinas	São Paulo	Moisés Lucarelli	19,728
Santos	Santos	São Paulo	Vila Belmiro	16,068
São Paulo	São Paulo	São Paulo	Morumbi	67,052
Sport	Recife	Pernambuco	Ilha do Retiro Arena Pernambuco (7 matches)	32,983 44,300
Vasco	Rio de Janeiro	Rio de Janeiro	Maracanã (8 matches) São Januário (8 matches) Mané Garrincha (one match) Olímpico Nilton Santos (one match) Arena Pantanal (one match)	78,838 24,584 72,788 44,661 44,097

Number of teams by state

Number of teams	State	Team(s)
5	São Paulo	Corinthians, Palmeiras, Ponte Preta, Santos, São Paulo
4	Santa Catarina	Avaí, Chapecoense, Figueirense, Joinville
3	Rio de Janeiro	Flamengo, Fluminense, Vasco
2	Minas Gerais	Atlético Mineiro, Cruzeiro
	Paraná	Atlético Paranaense, Coritiba
	Rio Grande do Sul	Grêmio, Internacional
1	Goiás	Goiás
	Pernambuco	Sport

Personnel and kits

Team	President	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsors
Atlético Mineiro	Daniel Nepomuceno	Diogo Giacomini (interim)	Leonardo Silva	Puma	MRV
Atlético Paranaense	Mário Celso Petraglia	Cristóvão Borges	Wéverton	Umbro	Caixa
Avaí	Nilton Macedo Machado	Raul Cabral	Marquinhos	Fila	VVoa
Chapecoense	Sandro Pallaoro	Guto Ferreira	Rafael Lima	Umbro	Caixa
Corinthians	Roberto de Andrade	Tite	Ralf	Nike	Caixa
Coritiba	Rogério Bacellar	Pachequinho	Lúcio Flávio	Nike	Caixa
Cruzeiro	Gilvan Tavares	Mano Menezes	Fábio	Penalty	Supermercados BH/Caixa
Figueirense	Wilfredo Billinger	Hudson Coutinho	Marquinhos	Lupo	Caixa
Flamengo	Eduardo Bandeira de Mello	Jayme de Almeida	Wallace	Adidas	Caixa
Fluminense	Peter Siemsen	Eduardo Baptista	Fred	Adidas	Matte Viton
Goiás	Sérgio Rassi	Danny Sérgio	Renan	Kappa	None
Grêmio	Romildo Bolzan Jr.	Roger Machado	Maicon	Umbro	Banrisul
Internacional	Vitorio Píffero	Argel Fucks	Andrés D'Alessandro	Nike	Banrisul
Joinville	Nereu Martinelli	PC Gusmão	Marcelo Costa	Umbro	Salfer
Palmeiras	Paulo Nobre	Marcelo Oliveira	Zé Roberto	Adidas	Crefisa
Ponte Preta	Márcio Della Volpe	Felipe Moreira	Fernando Bob	Adidas	Hitachi/Viva Schin
Santos	Modesto Roma Júnior	Dorival Júnior	Ricardo Oliveira	Nike	None
São Paulo	Leco	Milton Cruz	Rogério Ceni	Penalty/Under Armour	None
Sport	João Humberto Martorelli	Paulo Roberto Falcão	Durval	Adidas	Caixa
Vasco	Eurico Miranda	Jorginho	Nenê	Umbro	Caixa

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Grêmio	Luiz Felipe Scolari	Resigned	19 May	15th	Roger Machado	26 May
Fluminense	Ricardo Drubscky	Sacked	20 May	11th	Enderson Moreira	21 May
Flamengo	Vanderlei Luxemburgo	Sacked	25 May	17th	Cristóvão Borges	28 May
São Paulo	Milton Cruz	Mutual consent	31 May	6th	Juan Carlos Osorio	1 June
Cruzeiro	Marcelo Oliveira	Sacked	2 June	19th	Vanderlei Luxemburgo	2 June
Joinville	Hemerson Maria	Sacked	4 June	20th	Adílson Batista	5 June
Coritiba	Marquinhos Santos	Sacked	8 June	18th	Ney Franco	10 June
Palmeiras	Oswaldo de Oliveira	Sacked	9 June	15th	Marcelo Oliveira	15 June
Vasco	Doriva	Mutual consent	21 June	20th	Celso Roth	23 June
Goiás	Hélio dos Anjos	Sacked	22 June	15th	Julinho Camargo	7 July
Santos	Marcelo Fernandes	Mutual consent	9 July	17th	Dorival Júnior	9 July
Joinville	Adílson Batista	Sacked	26 July	20th	PC Gusmão	27 July
Ponte Preta	Guto Ferreira	Sacked	3 August	13th	Doriva	4 August
Internacional	Diego Aguirre	Sacked	6 August	10th	Argel Fucks	13 August
Figueirense	Argel Fucks	Signed by Internacional	13 August	16th	René Simões	17 August
Vasco	Celso Roth	Sacked	15 August	20th	Jorginho	16 August
Flamengo	Cristóvão Borges	Mutual consent	20 August	13th	Oswaldo de Oliveira	20 August
Cruzeiro	Vanderlei Luxemburgo	Sacked	31 August	16th	Mano Menezes	1 September
Chapecoense	Vinícius Eutrópio	Sacked	14 September	13th	Guto Ferreira	14 September
Fluminense	Enderson Moreira	Sacked	16 September	11th	Eduardo Baptista	17 September
Figueirense	René Simões	Sacked	16 September	18th	Hudson Coutinho	22 September
Goiás	Julinho Camargo	Sacked	17 September	17th	Artur Neto	18 September
Sport	Eduardo Baptista	Signed by Fluminense	17 September	10th	Paulo Roberto Falcão	19 September
Atlético Paranaense	Milton Mendes	Sacked	28 September	11th	Cristóvão Borges	4 October
São Paulo	Juan Carlos Osorio	Signed by Mexico	7 October	5th	Doriva	7 October
Ponte Preta	Doriva	Signed by São Paulo	7 October	9th	Felipe Moreira	14 October
Goiás	Artur Neto	Resigned	18 October	18th	Danny Sérgio	19 October
Coritiba	Ney Franco	Sacked	8 November	18th	Pachequinho	9 November
São Paulo	Doriva	Sacked	9 November	5th	Milton Cruz	9 November
Atlético Mineiro	Levir Culpi	Mutual consent	26 November	2nd	Diogo Giacomini	26 November
Flamengo	Oswaldo de Oliveira	Mutual consent	28 November	11th	Jayme de Almeida	28 November

Foreign players

The clubs can have a maximum of five foreign players in their Campeonato Brasileiro squads.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Dual Nationality Players	Former Players
Atlético Mineiro	Jesús Dátolo	Lucas Pratto	Sherman Cárdenas
Atlético Paranaense	Fernando Barrientos	Christian Vilches	Daniel Hernández	Bruno Pereirinha
Avaí	Néstor Camacho					Juninho
Chapecoense
Corinthians	Ángel Romero	Gustavo Viera					Stiven Mendoza Paolo Guerrero Emerson Sheik
Coritiba	Luis Cáceres
Cruzeiro	Ariel Cabral	Joel Tagueu	Eugenio Mena	Giorgian de Arrascaeta			Felipe Seymour Duvier Riascos
Figueirense
Flamengo	Héctor Canteros	Pablo Armero	Paolo Guerrero			Emerson Sheik	Lucas Mugni Eduardo Víctor Cáceres
Fluminense							Alejandro Martinuccio
Goiás
Grêmio	Frickson Erazo	Braian Rodríguez	Maxi Rodríguez
Internacional	Andrés D'Alessandro	Lisandro López					Carlos Luque
Joinville	Mariano Trípodi
Palmeiras	Agustín Allione	Jonatan Cristaldo	Pablo Mouche	Lucas Barrios			Jorge Valdivia
Ponte Preta
Santos	Edwin Valencia	Cristian Ledesma
São Paulo	Ricardo Centurión	Wilder Guisao
Sport Recife
Vasco	Pablo Guiñazú	Felipe Seymour	Duvier Riascos	Julio dos Santos	Martín Silva		Emanuel Biancucchi Germán Herrera

Results

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Corinthians (C)	38	24	9	5	71	31	+40	81	2016 Copa Libertadores second stage[a]
2	Atlético Mineiro	38	21	6	11	65	47	+18	69
3	Grêmio	38	20	8	10	52	32	+20	68
4	São Paulo	38	18	8	12	53	47	+6	62	2016 Copa Libertadores first stage
5	Internacional	38	17	9	12	39	38	+1	60	2016 Copa do Brasil round of 16[b]
6	Sport Recife	38	15	14	9	53	38	+15	59	2016 Copa Sudamericana second stage[c]
7	Santos	38	16	10	12	59	41	+18	58
8	Cruzeiro	38	15	10	13	44	35	+9	55
9	Palmeiras	38	15	8	15	60	51	+9	53	2016 Copa Libertadores second stage[a]
10	Atlético Paranaense	38	14	9	15	43	48	−5	51	2016 Copa Sudamericana second stage[c]
11	Ponte Preta	38	13	12	13	41	40	+1	51
12	Flamengo	38	15	4	19	45	53	−8	49
13	Fluminense	38	14	5	19	40	49	−9	47
14	Chapecoense	38	12	11	15	34	44	−10	47
15	Coritiba	38	11	11	16	31	42	−11	44
16	Figueirense	38	11	10	17	36	50	−14	43
17	Avaí (R)	38	11	9	18	38	60	−22	42	Relegation to 2016 Campeonato Brasileiro Série B
18	Vasco da Gama (R)	38	10	11	17	28	54	−26	41
19	Goiás (R)	38	10	8	20	39	49	−10	38
20	Joinville (R)	38	7	10	21	26	48	−22	31

Source: Soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) goals scored; 5) head-to-head results; 6) least red cards received; 7) least yellow cards received; 8) draw.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Palmeiras has a berth guaranteed to the second stage as the 2015 Copa do Brasil champions.
2. Since a Brazilian team didn't win the 2015 Copa Libertadores, an additional berth to the 2016 Copa do Brasil round of 16 will be given to the best team not qualified to the 2016 Copa Libertadores, the fifth-placed Internacional.
3. Teams will enter in the 2016 Copa Sudamericana if they do not reach the 2016 Copa do Brasil round of 16. Also, the 2015 Copa Verde champion (Cuiabá) and the 2016 Copa do Nordeste champion have a guaranteed berth.

Result table

Home \ Away	CAM	CAP	AVA	CHA	COR	CTB	CRU	FIG	FLA	FLU	GOI	GRE	INT	JOI	PAL	PON	SAN	SPA	SPT	VAS
Atlético Mineiro		0–1	2–0	3–0	0–3	2–0	1–3	1–0	4–1	4–1	2–2	0–2	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–1	2–2	3–1	2–1	3–0
Atlético Paranaense	1–0		2–1	1–0	1–4	2–2	2–2	1–0	3–0	1–2	3–0	1–2	3–0	0–0	3–3	1–2	0–0	2–1	1–1	2–0
Avaí	1–4	1–2		2–1	1–2	0–2	1–1	1–1	2–1	1–0	2–1	1–2	3–0	2–1	1–3	1–0	1–1	2–1	2–2	1–1
Chapecoense	2–1	0–0	0–0		1–3	2–1	0–2	2–2	1–3	2–1	1–3	1–0	1–0	2–0	5–1	0–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0
Corinthians	1–0	2–0	1–1	1–0		2–1	3–0	2–1	1–0	2–0	3–0	1–1	2–1	3–0	0–2	2–0	2–0	6–1	4–3	3–0
Coritiba	0–3	2–0	1–2	1–0	1–1		1–0	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–0	2–1	0–0	1–0	1–2	0–0	0–0
Cruzeiro	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–1	0–1	2–0		5–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	0–0	0–0	3–0	2–1	1–1	0–1	2–1	3–0	2–2
Figueirense	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–0	1–3	0–0	2–1		3–0	1–0	3–1	0–2	0–0	0–2	2–1	3–1	0–0	0–2	2–1	0–0
Flamengo	0–2	3–2	3–0	1–0	0–3	0–2	2–0	1–2		2–3	4–1	1–0	0–1	2–0	1–2	1–1	2–2	2–1	2–2	1–2
Fluminense	1–2	0–1	3–1	2–3	0–0	2–0	1–0	2–1	1–3		2–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–4	2–0	2–1	2–0	0–0	1–2
Goiás	0–0	2–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–3	0–1	2–3	0–1	1–2		1–1	2–1	3–0	1–0	1–2	4–1	0–1	1–0	3–0
Grêmio	2–1	2–1	3–1	2–3	3–1	0–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	2–1		5–0	2–1	1–0	3–3	1–0	1–2	1–1	2–0
Internacional	1–3	2–0	1–0	0–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	1–2	1–0	2–1	1–0		1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	2–1	6–0
Joinville	2–2	1–2	2–0	0–0	0–1	3–1	3–0	1–0	0–1	2–1	2–1	0–2	0–2		0–0	1–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–2
Palmeiras	2–2	0–1	3–0	2–0	3–3	0–2	1–1	2–0	4–2	2–1	0–1	3–2	1–1	3–2		0–1	1–0	4–0	0–2	0–2
Ponte Preta	0–2	2–1	2–0	3–1	2–2	3–0	1–2	0–1	1–0	3–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–2		3–1	1–0	0–1	0–1
Santos	4–0	5–1	5–2	3–1	1–0	3–0	1–0	3–0	0–0	3–1	3–1	1–3	3–1	2–0	2–1	2–2		3–0	2–2	1–0
São Paulo	4–2	1–0	1–1	0–0	1–1	3–1	1–0	3–2	2–1	0–0	0–3	2–0	2–0	3–0	1–1	3–0	3–2		3–0	2–2
Sport	4–1	0–0	3–0	3–0	2–0	1–0	0–0	4–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	3–0	2–1	2–2	1–1	1–1	2–0		2–1
Vasco	1–2	2–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–3	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	0–0	1–4	0–3	1–0	0–4	2–1

Updated to match(es) played on 6 December 2015. Source: CBF
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Attendance

Average home attendances

Pos.	Team	GP	Total	High	Low	Average
1	Corinthians	19	650,862	45,469	10,144	34,256
2	Flamengo	19	635,544	67,011	12,814	33,450
3	Palmeiras	19	567,544	38,794	15,037	29,871
4	Grêmio	19	511,134	46,915	8,336	26,902
5	Atlético Mineiro	19	448,007	55,987	9,373	23,579
6	Cruzeiro	19	425,056	45,991	8,271	22,371
7	Internacional	19	407,251	35,766	11,415	21,434
8	São Paulo	19	391,708	59,612	11,066	20,616
9	Atlético Paranaense	19	334,957	27,327	10,499	17,629
10	Fluminense	19	334,940	55,999	4,749	17,628
11	Sport	19	307,155	41,994	3,046	16,166
12	Coritiba	19	278,485	34,287	7,925	14,657
13	Vasco	19	273,465	41,581	2,449	14,393
14	Joinville	19	177,868	15,731	5,979	9,361
15	Chapecoense	19	172,049	16,474	5,228	9,055
16	Figueirense	19	169,214	16,047	5,425	8,906
17	Santos	19	165,133	13,481	3,836	8,691
18	Avaí	19	161,751	14,582	4,810	8,513
19	Goiás	19	153,706	35,875	1,461	8,090
20	Ponte Preta	19	114,626	11,694	2,542	6,033
-	Total	380	6,671,696	67,011	1,461	17,557

Updated to games played on 6 December 2015.

Source: PerspectivaOnline.com.br

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Ricardo Oliveira	Santos	20
2	Vágner Love	Corinthians	14
3	André	Sport	13
	Jádson	Corinthians	13
	Lucas Pratto	Atlético Mineiro	13
6	Henrique Almeida	Coritiba	12
7	Vitinho	Internacional	11
	Willian	Cruzeiro	11
9	Alexandre Pato	São Paulo	10
	André Lima	Avaí	10
	Dudu	Palmeiras	10
	Erik	Goiás	10
	Gabriel Barbosa	Santos	10
	Luan	Grêmio	10

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Lucas Pratto	Atlético Mineiro	São Paulo	3–1	29 July	[4]
Willian4	Cruzeiro	Figueirense	5–1	6 September	[5]
Lucas Barrios	Palmeiras	Fluminense	4–1	16 September	[6]

⁴ Player scored 4 goals.

As of 6 December 2015.^[7]

Source: ESPN FC & Globo