Neymar had been out for five weeks, and two late penalties off the bench held leaders Flamengo 2-2 at Santos
Flamengo were 2-0 up at half-time at Vila Belmiro, then Jorginho was sent off and Neymar scored twice from the spot to earn Santos a point against the Brasileirão leaders.
Oct 9, 2026
Neymar had not played since 2 September. He came on at half-time at Vila Belmiro on Thursday, 8 October, with Santos 2-0 down to the Brasileirão leaders, and scored two penalties in the last ten minutes of normal time to hold Flamengo to a 2-2 draw.
A few of the faces will be familiar to anyone who watched Brazil in Kolkata. Pedro and Samuel Lino, both in Flamengo’s starting XI, scored for Brazil in their 4-0 win over India in Kolkata on 3 October, and Santos midfielder Gabriel Bontempo was in that Brazil squad too. Five days later Pedro set up the opening goal at Vila Belmiro, and by half-time the points looked to be going back to Rio.
Flamengo in control at the break
Danilo won the ball back two minutes before half-time, exchanged passes with Pedro and finished past Diógenes in the Santos goal. Then, in first-half stoppage time, Lucas Paquetá headed in a corner from Jorge Carrascal.
Santos had gone into the game on five straight league wins, every one of them without Neymar. Cuca had planned to start him on the bench rather than break up a side that had learned to win without him. At 2-0, he sent him on.
Jorginho’s handball turned it
Agustín Rossi kept Flamengo two clear early in the second half with a save from close range. The game swung on a long VAR review. Jorginho, the former Chelsea and Arsenal midfielder, had handled the ball on the edge of his own area, and what had been given as a free kick became a penalty and a red card. Neymar scored it.
Flamengo, down to ten, could not see it out. Luiz Araújo, one of their substitutes, gave away a second penalty with a foul in the box, and Neymar scored again with two minutes of normal time left.
He had been out with a grade 2 injury to his right thigh, picked up in the first half of a 0-0 draw with Palmeiras in the Copa do Brasil. The estimate then was four to eight weeks. He was back in five.
What it does to the title race
Flamengo stay top with 61 points from 29 games. They had won five league games in a row themselves before Thursday, so two dropped points at a ground where they were cruising will hurt, and it hands Palmeiras a chance to close in. Flamengo host Fluminense at the Maracanã on Sunday, 11 October, without Jorginho.
Santos have 42 points and have now gone eight games without defeat. They are at Atlético Mineiro on the same day. If Neymar stays fit, Cuca has a better problem than he had in September: how to fit his best player back into a team that won five in a row without him. I would not want to be the one dropped for him.