2015 Campeonato Cearense

The 2015 Campeonato Cearense de Futebol was the 101st season of top professional football league in the state of Ceará, Brazil. The competition began on January 14 and ended on May 3. Fortaleza won the championship for the 40th time, while Horizonte and São Benedito were relegated.

Campeonato Cearense de Futebol

Season	2015
Champions	Ceará
Relegated	Horizonte São Benedito
Copa do Brasil	Fortaleza Ceará
Série D	Guarani de Juazeiro
Matches played	76
Goals scored	223 (2.93 per match)
Top goalscorer	Núbio Flávio (Icasa) Assisinho (Ceará) - 10 goals
← 2014 2016 →

Format

The ten teams are split in two groups, who play a double round robin against teams in the same group. The three best in each group advance to the second stage, while the two worst from each group are put in the loser's group.

In the loser's group, the four teams play against each other in a double round-robin, and the two worst are relegated.^[1]

In the second stage, the six teams are split in two groups, who play against the other teams in the same group twice. The two best in each group advance to the final stage.

The final stage are playoffs, where the teams are seeded by their performance in the whole championship.^[1]

Participating teams

Club	Home city	2013 result
Ceará	Fortaleza	1st
Fortaleza	Fortaleza	2nd
Guarani de Juazeiro	Juazeiro do Norte	6th
Guarany	Sobral	4th
Horizonte	Horizonte	5th
Icasa	Juazeiro do Norte	3rd
Itapipoca	Itapipoca	8th
Maranguape	Maranguape	2nd (2nd division)
Quixadá	Quixadá	7th
São Benedito	São Benedito	1st (2nd division)

First stage

Group A1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Icasa (A)	8	5	1	2	15	11	+4	16	Qualifies to the Second stage
2	Fortaleza (A)	8	4	3	1	13	7	+6	15
3	Quixadá (A)	8	4	2	2	10	7	+3	14
4	Horizonte	8	2	2	4	10	13	−3	8	Advances to Loser's Group
5	São Benedito	8	1	0	7	9	19	−10	3

Source: ^[2]
(A) Advance to a further round

Results

Home \ Away	FOR	HOR	ICA	QUI	SBE
Fortaleza		1–1	1–0	0–0	3–2
Horizonte	1–3		1–1	1–2	1–0
Icasa	2–0	4–3		1–0	2–1
Quixadá	0–0	1–0	2–4		2–0
São Benedito	1–5	1–2	2–1	1–3

Source: ^[2]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Group A2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ceará (A)	8	6	1	1	18	7	+11	19	Qualifies to the Second stage
2	Maranguape (A)	8	4	0	4	11	11	0	12
3	Guarani de Juazeiro (A)	8	3	1	4	11	9	+2	10
4	Guarany de Sobral	8	3	1	4	5	11	−6	10	Advances to Loser's Group
5	Itapipoca	8	2	1	5	4	11	−7	7

Source: ^[2]
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(A) Advance to a further round

Results

Home \ Away	CEA	GJU	GSO	ITA	MFC
Ceará		1–0	4–0	3–0	4–3
Guarani de Juazeiro	2–2		2–0	0–1	1–2
Guarany de Sobral	2–1	1–3		1–0	0–1
Itapipoca	0–2	0–2	0–0		2–1
Maranguape	0–1	0–1	2–1	2–1

Source: ^[2]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second stage

Group B1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Fortaleza (A)	6	4	1	1	11	3	+8	13	Qualifies to the Final stage
2	Icasa (A)	6	3	1	2	11	8	+3	10
3	Quixadá	6	3	1	2	11	9	+2	10

Source: ^[2]
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(A) Advance to a further round

Group B2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ceará (A)	6	3	1	2	10	8	+2	10	Qualifies to the Final stage
2	Guarani de Juazeiro (A)	6	1	1	4	3	8	−5	4
3	Maranguape	6	1	1	4	7	17	−10	4

Source: ^[2]
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(A) Advance to a further round

Results

Home \ Away	FOR	ICA	QUI	CEA	GJU	MFC
Fortaleza				0–1	2–0	1–1
Icasa				2–2	3–0	2–3
Quixadá				3–1	0–2	4–1
Ceará	1–2	2–0	3–1
Guarani de Juazeiro	0–1	0–1	1–1
Maranguape	0–5	1–3	1–2

Source: ^[2]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Loser's group

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Relegation
1	Guarany de Sobral	6	4	2	0	13	8	+5	14
2	Itapipoca	6	2	2	2	14	15	−1	8
3	Horizonte	6	2	1	3	13	11	+2	7	Relegation to 2016 Campeonato Cearense Second Division
4	São Benedito	6	0	3	3	9	15	−6	3

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Final stage

	Semifinals							Finals
	1	Ceará	1	3	4
	4	Guarani de Juazeiro	0	0	0
								1	Ceará	1	2	3
								2	Fortaleza	2	2	4
	2	Fortaleza	2	0	2
	3	Icasa	1	0	1

Semifinals

First leg

April 4, 2015

18:15 UTC−03:00

Guarani de Juazeiro	0–1	Ceará
		Assisinho 78'

Romeirão, Juazeiro do Norte

Attendance: 1,521

Referee: José Cleuton Souza Lima

---

April 5, 2015

16:00 UTC−03:00

Icasa	1–2	Fortaleza
Everton 79'		Cássio 36' Lúcio Maranhão 86'

Romeirão, Juazeiro do Norte

Attendance: 4,876

Referee: Francisco Almeida Filho

Second leg

April 12, 2015

16:00 UTC−03:00

Fortaleza	0–0	Icasa

Castelão, Fortaleza

Referee: Glauco Feitosa

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April 18, 2015

18:15 UTC−03:00

Ceará	3–0	Guarani de Juazeiro
Magno Alves 31' Marinho 48' Marcos Aurélio 90+2'

Estádio Presidente Vargas, Fortaleza

Finals

April 26, 2015

16:00 UTC−03:00

Fortaleza	2–1	Ceará
Genílson 15' Everton 36'		Magno Alves 41'

Castelão, Fortaleza

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May 3, 2015

16:00 UTC−03:00

Ceará	2–2	Fortaleza
Ricardinho 81' Assisinho 90'		Daniel Sobralense 31' Cassiano 90+2'

Castelão, Fortaleza